Home
by MimiNeshomeleh
Summary: Home...described by the dictionary as 'a place where one lives permanently, especially as part of a family'. Seems simple enough, but was anything ever really simple for Tony and Ziva? Rated M. Tiva. I don't known anything NCIS related.
1. Chapter 1

Home

**Thank you for reading and reviewing the last story and I hope you enjoy this one too. Please review and let me know what you think and if you have any ideas you could like to see in stories please let me know and I will write them!**

**~*TIVA*~**

Tony found himself pondering the idea of home, it wasn't like he had anything else to do stuck on a twelve hour flight. He was sat comfortably in first class and was impressed by the movie selection but tiredness had won his attention and his mind wandered as he attempted to fall asleep. Home was a strange concept, what made somewhere home? Was it somewhere you grew up? Somewhere that your family lived? Somewhere you had lived for many years? He definitely felt like DC was his home, he'd lived there for almost twenty years, did Ziva feel like DC was her home? The destination of the flight was the prompt for these thoughts swirling around his mind….Tel Aviv. He had few happy memories of the Israeli capital, he wondered if Ziva's happy memories of the city caused her to think of it has home?

He looked over at Ziva who had also reclined her seat into the laying position and was happily fast asleep. She really could sleep anywhere, he thought to himself as he rested his head back down against the too scratchy pillow.

Only eight more hours to go.

It was the heat that hit him first as they stepped off the plane and onto the jet bridge. He'd tried to tell her that going to Israel in late July was a bad idea but she'd insisted that it had to be now, there were no other options. As they stepped from the jet bridge and into the heavily air conditioned building the blast of cold caused his skin to come out in goose pimples.

"Shalom, passports please." The male immigration agent asked gruffly as Tony and Ziva stepped up to the counter. Tony would never admit it to anymore but he was still beyond intimidated but he looked over at Ziva who appeared as cool as a cucumber.

Travelling on her American passport still felt strange for Ziva, and standing before immigration in the country of her birth, that she had called home for 23 years, was also something she was yet to become accustomed to.

Tony passed both of their passports to the official, watching as the man looked from the passports, to his computer, to their faces and back again several times.

"Wait here a moment please." The spoke in smooth deep Hebrew as he stood from his chair and walked away from the counter and through a secure door that stood across from the counters.

Tony immediately became alarmed, how had that man known Ziva spoke Hebrew and where had he gone?

"Ziva…have you upset Israel lately?" Tony asked, half joking to try and ease his anxiety and half asking a serious question. He was quietly terrified that they were about to be ambushed from behind the armoured door.

She frowned, it wasn't possible that she had upset anyone recently. She hadn't been in Israel or anywhere near since the death of her father three years previously. Before she had time to think about it anymore the man returned, taking his seat at the counter and handing back the passports to Tony.

"Welcome to Israel, enjoy your stay." He spoke again in Hebrew, almost smirking as Ziva snatched the passports from his hand and shoved them into her backpack. She grabbed Tony's hand firmly as they continued on their journey away from immigration and towards baggage claim. It was hard for Tony to keep up with Ziva's brisk walk and he found himself almost jogging beside her to match her pace.

"Uh, Ziva…want to explain what just happened?" Tony had picked up a fair amount of Hebrew in the years that he had known Ziva but not enough to navigate him through the strange encounter they had just had with the gruff looking immigration official.

He could tell Ziva's ninja senses were tingling and he knew from experience that usually the right thing to do in these situations was to listen to her and follow her lead. He could feel the anxiety seeping out of her body.

"Mossad." Ziva whispered, not keen for anyone around them to hear what she was saying. Ziva looked over her shoulder as they stepped out onto the street with their bags, in search of their rental car.

"Mossad?" Tony asked, as he continued to jog beside her along the terminal sidewalk towards the rental parking lot.

It didn't take Ziva long to locate the car they had rented. It was small, she insisted that smaller cars were easier to travel the streets of Tel Aviv in and were much easier to blend into the traffic than a large SUV. Tony had asked if there was an upgrade that would afford them bulletproof glass, to this Ziva had simply rolled her eyes.

"Yes Mossad. They wanted me to know that they knew we were here." Ziva put her foot down hard on the gas as they pulled out of the parking lot and into the streets, swerving in and out of traffic. The streets of Tel Aviv were wide but bendy in places and Ziva's driving gave even those with the strongest stomachs motion sickness.

Tony looked out of the window and at the scenes that were flashing past them. For all the times he had found himself in Israel, he had never actually explored much of it. He took an opportunity to admire how the sun reflected off the stone buildings and how the tall palm trees moved gently in the breeze, it really was a beautiful country. He felt a moment of sadness come over him as he wishes they could explore the country leisurely, there was so much he had never had the chance to see. His peaceful thoughts were broken by Ziva making a sharp right turn and stopping suddenly at the gate of a large housing complex. Ziva quickly punched in the security code and the large metal gates began to open in front of them. Stepped firmly down on the gas again, Ziva sped their car through the complex of large detached home and palm trees and pulled up to another set of gates that stood in front of a large house that was alone at the end of the street.

Tony admired the house as Ziva waited for the gates to open, it was a detached three storey home built in the white stone he had seen as they'd driven through Tel Aviv. The garden around the home was filled with lush green trees and shrubs and beautifully coloured tropical flowers. The car pulled through the gate and once she was very sure no one had followed them in, Ziva got out of the car and stretched.

Tony admired the house from up close as they walked from the car towards the doorway. The garden wrapped around the whole house and he could see a swimming pool to the left of the house that was just asking to be jumped in to take away the oppression of the hot desert summer.

"Shoshana? Are you here?" Ziva called in gentle Hebrew as she entered the house.

Tony was excited to meet Shoshana, he had heard much about her from Ziva over the years but had never had the pleasure of meeting her. Shoshana was an older lady who had worked for the David family since Tali had been born. She had come from an ultra-orthodox family and had lived in Jerusalem. She had married a well-respected Rabbi when she was seventeen and they'd had four beautiful children, three sons and a daughter. Shoshana often told Ziva about them; Zvi, Avram, Chaim and Ruchami. The family had been driving in a taxi on their way back from visiting family when there had been a terrible accident, Shoshana had been the only survivor. She had explained to Ziva once that after that had happened, after she had lost everything, she had questioned everything she had grown up believing and couldn't bear to be in Jerusalem, walking and driving the streets where it had happened, any longer. Shoshana had been only twenty six when she had lost everything, packed up all her belongings and moved to Tel Aviv to start a new life. Despite her crisis of faith, she had never given up the traditions that made her who she was. She continued to meticulously cover her hair, wore only modest clothing and respected the rule of Shabbat. After four years of working as a cleaner for many businesses across Tel Aviv, Shoshana had applied for a job advertised by Eli David as a nanny and housekeeper. It was a job she had continued to fulfil to this very day.

"Zivaleh? Is that you?" Shoshana came bustling into the large hallway to find Tony and Ziva stood side by side with their suitcases around them. Tony smiled as she wrapped her arms tightly around Ziva as best she could, she was only five foot 2 after all. She looked just as Tony had imagined, her face was kind and warm. She was dressed modestly in a long navy skirt and black tights with a light grey long sleeved summer sweatshirt. Tony imagined her hair would be grey under the blue and silver mitpachat.

The embrace they shared was similar to that you would expect between a mother and a daughter, which was unsurprising given that Shoshana had all but raised Ziva and Tali while their parents had been busy working and fulfilling the social requirements of the higher ranks of Mossad.

"Shoshana, this is Tony. Tony, Shoshana." It occurred to Ziva as she introduced the pair that Shoshana was really the only family that she had left, her Aunt Nettie had passed away two years ago and she hadn't heard from her uncle since she'd been a child. It didn't matter that they were not blood related, Shoshana had been there for all of her childhood memories and had been more of a mother than her own at times.

"Tony, what an honor it is to finally meet you and to have you here." Shoshana took Tony's hands in hers and gave him a warm loving smile. "Come, I have prepared you lunch. You must be needing the energy after such a long journey." She spoke, her joy obvious through her heavily accented English.

The large kitchen was laden with a mixture of delicious dishes. There was fresh olives, Israeli salad, homemade falafel, pita and hummus along with an array of fresh fruit. Tony felt his waistband tightening just looking at all of the delicious foods on offer. They are in relative quiet, only the sound of quiet conversation broke the comfortable relaxed silences.

Before they knew it hours had passed and the sun had set over the horizon. The temperatures had fallen to a much more comfortable level and the humidity had calmed.

"Zivaleh, I am going off to bed, I have much to do tomorrow and I must start early. I hope you sleep well, I have put fresh linens on the bed in your room." She pressed a light kiss to Ziva's forehead and tapped her cheek gently before she turned and strolled away from the living room where they had been sat enjoying the sunset.

"We should go to bed also Tony, it is getting late." Ziva took Tony by the hand as they made their way to the large marble staircase that was the centerpiece of the grand hallway.

He couldn't believe the interior of the house; he'd known it would be grand but he hadn't been expecting it to be quite so ornate. Many of the rooms were trimmed with marble and the fixtures and fittings were modern. The bedroom which had been Ziva's as a child had been redecorated in a modern pale grey and contained the most comfortable looking super king bed. The room was at the back of the house which looked out unobscured over the Mediterranean Sea. The adjoining en-suit bathroom had a large double steam shower which Tony was very much looking forward to using.

Ziva closed the door behind them and locked it firmly, mostly out of habit but also out of not wanting to be accidentally disturbed. A sly smile spread across her face as she turned back towards Tony, this was a smile that Tony knew well. Tony turned and looked back out over the ocean, smiling also as Ziva wrapped her arms wound his waist and kissed his shoulder.

"Oh…Hi Ziva." Tony chuckled, turning around and wrapping his arms around her and nuzzling his face into her neck.

"I am suddenly feeling not so tired." Ziva whispered seductively, smiling up at Tony with bright happy eyes. Tony had seen this Ziva many times, in fact he thought that flirty Ziva might be one of his favorite sides of her personality. She was, after all, a very beautiful woman.

"Mmm, I really like that thought, but…uh…what about Shoshana?" Tony was acutely aware of the older lady sleeping in the house and was acutely aware that Ziva was often oblivious to people around them when they were completely lost in each other and the idea of Shoshana hearing that did not fill him with joy.

"She will not hear, she has a private annex built onto the side of the other side of the house. There is no internal door…like what do you call that in America? A row house, yes? She will not hear." Ziva's words of reassurance were spoken between frenzied kisses that she was placing on Tony's lips, face and neck.

Ziva had always enjoyed sex, a trait of her personality that Tony had also taken a lot of enjoyment from. All throughout their relationship they had had a very healthy sex life, but recently things had really intensified. Three weeks ago Tony and Ziva had found out that Ziva was pregnant, they'd discussed having children but had never really made any firm plans, and so when Ziva had sensed that something wasn't right it had taken them both by surprise when they doctor had said that Ziva's blood test showed that she was pregnant. The doctor had confirmed that Ziva was six weeks pregnant and had been surprised that she had not experienced any morning sickness, just some dizziness and anaemia. Tony wondered to himself why they hadn't done this pregnancy thing sooner, if the result was that Ziva would be extra sensitive in all the right places.

Ziva made quick work of the buttons on Tony's shirt, along with the zipper on his pants, and before they knew it he was stood in just his boxers. He began to lift the oversized sweater from her body, revealing the red lacy bra that she knew was one of Tony's favorites. Conveniently, Ziva had worn yoga pants that Tony was able to make quick work of removing, pushing them down her tanned toned legs before they fell together onto the large comfortable bed.

Tony unclasped Ziva's bra gently as they fell and discarded it onto the floor, immediately taking one of Ziva's soft nipples into his mouth. Ziva reached into Tony's boxers but soon became frustrated by the restriction of the fabric. Sensing her annoyance, Tony paused his actions to remove his boxers and discard them onto the floor.

"No foreplay, they'll be time for that later. I'm tired and I want you." Ziva whispered, she was well aware that they didn't need foreplay to be ready for the main event.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Tony winked at her as she spoke, placing a single kiss to the smooth skin just below where the hem of her panties had been. "Top or bottom?" He asked, Ziva pulled him down to her as she thought about her answer for a fraction of a second.

"Bottom…for now." She replied. It took barely a second for Tony to align himself just right and find their rhythm. They had a deep connection which meant that sex had always been incredible, they'd managed to get to know each other so well that it often lasted for an hour or more. It was something that neither had ever experienced with anyone else.

This had been one of those times, an hour later both fell exhausted onto the cold sheets of the bed trying to catch their breath.

"Pregnancy sex is amazing." Ziva chuckled as she reached for the bottom of the bed to pull the sheet up and over them, turning of her side and resting her head against Tony's shoulder.

"No kidding." He replied, wrapping his arms around her and falling into a peaceful sleep.

~*TIVA*~

Tony woke with his body wrapped tightly around Ziva's. He loved waking up with her every day and he especially loved when that waking up happened naked. His hand began to gently run over Ziva's body, running down and resting on her toned tummy which was set to show any signs of pregnancy. He'd worried about that at first, that she didn't look any different at all on the outside, but the doctor had reassured him that women with strong abdominal muscles often did not show much during pregnancy at all and reassured them not to be alarmed if in fact her bump remained very small even at the end of the pregnancy.

"Tony?" Ziva spoke, as she began to awake. She was slightly confused about where she was but it didn't take her long to realise they were at her father's house in Israel.

"Morning, shall we go and see what Shoshana has made us for breakfast?" He could think of little else except for how hungry he was.

"No…I need to talk to you first, I don't want to be here in Israel long Tony. Once my father's apartment is sold I want us to go home, but I want to take Shoshana home with us. I can't leave her here Tony." Ziva had been thinking about this for some time, even before they had found out she was pregnant.

Shoshana was very important to her and she was the only family that she had left. There was no love lost between Eli David and those who still worked within Mossad who had been hoping his replacement would be Illan Bodnar. Almost everyone that had known Eli had known that Shoshana had worked for the family and if Ziva wasn't safe in Israel, then neither was she.

"If that's what you want then that's what we'll do." Tony reassured, pressing a loving kiss to Ziva's lips.

"That's good, because I have already filled out the visa paperwork. She will work for us as a housekeeper and as a nanny once the baby arrives. She will live with us and we will take care of her. I have been gathering intel for several months and I spoke with a contact at Homeland, Shoshana isn't safe here. Once we get to DC; she can apply for a special visa, my contact assures me that there are cases just like hers that have been approved. She will have no problems obtaining permanent residence." Ziva had clearly thought about this a lot in the last few months, something Tony had been completely unaware of.

Tony knew who Ziva's contact was at Homeland; she was a friend of Ziva's that she had met at synagogue, a lawyer, who had specialized in immigration before joining Homeland.

"Okay, put the work visa forms in today. I'll book her a flight home with us as soon we we're ready to go. Have you discussed this with her? There is always a chance she'll say no Ziva." Tony loved the idea of bringing Shoshana back to DC with them, for Ziva to have family that had known her in childhood and that had known her sister and mother but he was fearful of Ziva's reaction if she declined the office of a new home in America.

"Not recently, I will ask again after breakfast." With that, Ziva got out of bed and made her way into the bathroom to shower.

Tony took a moment to contemplate his life in that moment. When he'd pulled Ziva out of the desert all those years ago he'd never imagined they would be together, let alone having a baby together. She'd feared that, after everything she had been through that summer, she would never be able to have a baby and so the pregnancy had been a welcome gift. She'd been even more surprised that the doctor hadn't felt the pregnancy to be anything other than normal. Tony had all but given up hope on having children, he would never admit it to Ziva but he had privately shed a tear or two of joy when she had shared the news with him.

Ziva came out of the bathroom in comfortable yoga pants and a floaty yellow top that accented her tanned olive skin. When they were both finally showered and dressed and ready to eat, they descended down the stairs and into the large kitchen dining area. The large double doors were open, the warm breeze moving through the room. There was a large patio outside the doors with a smart wooden table that had been covered with delicious looking breakfast items, both Israeli and American.

"Shalom my Ziva." Shoshana kissed Ziva's forehead as the couple approached the outside table. "Boker Tov Tony." She greeted with a bright smile. "Sit, I have breakfast all ready for you."

They sat down to the feast of delicious foods; fresh fruits, yogurt, Israeli honey, granola, bagels, cream cheese and even steaming hot shakshouka.

"Shoshana, may I speak with you while we clear away the dishes?" Ziva asked in Hebrew.

"Of course, Tateleh." She replied, picking up a few empty dishes and heading towards the kitchen.

Ziva took a deep breath, she wasn't sure why she was so nervous. She almost felt like a child telling her mother that she had done something bad, but there was only hope in what she had to say.

"Shoshana, I was wondering whether you would consider coming to America to live with Tony and I? I fear for your safety here, all alone in this house with so many of my father's enemy's close by. Uh…I also need your help, I no longer have my mother to turn to for support. Tony and I, we are having a baby and you are the closest thing I have to a mother." Ziva had invested all her hopes in Shoshana saying yes, she didn't really have a backup plan. All of her plans hinged on Shoshana being willing to move to the US and live with them to help care for the baby.

Shoshana put the dishes down slowly and moved to stand in front of Ziva, taking both her cheeks in her hands and squeezing them excitedly.

"Mazel Tov Tateleh, this wonderful news! Is my being there with you really what you both want? I will not be an intrusion or a burden. Is it even possible?" Shoshana missed Ziva terribly but she wasn't sure if moving across the country was what they both wanted, or something Ziva had asked on a whim because she was afraid of the changes becoming a mother would bring.

"It is possible and it is what we want. Neither Tony nor I have mothers who are still with us, we would love to have you safe and there with us. I have already completed the form, all you need to do is sign them here, here and here." Ziva pointed to the spaces on the form that she had marked with an 'X' showing where signatures were required. Shoshana picked up the pen without hesitation and signed her name on the line, leaving no question about where she wanted to be.

Ziva left out a sign of relief; watching Shoshana sign the forms and guarantee her safety in the US was like a weight off her shoulders. They would need all the help they could get when the baby was born, neither had much experience of motherhood having both lost their mothers at such young ages.

All Ziva needed to do now was get them out of Israel unharmed.

~*TIVA*~

Ziva was dressed smartly as she stepped into the blissfully air conditioned office building of her Tel Aviv based lawyer. Today she planned to close the sale of her father's Tel Aviv apartment, which had been used for a number of years as a Mossad safe house, and a small apartment that had belonged to her grandparents in the Golan Heights town of Katzrin. She had never intended to hold on to either of these properties after her father passed away; she did not have emotional attachments to either, holding onto them would have meant maintaining them. She had however, decided to hold onto the farmhouse in the olive groves of Be'er Sheva and the large Tel Aviv home in which they had been staying. She had leased the farmhouse to a happy young family who had been thrilled to find a rural property that would afford their children space to play and be free. The Tel Aviv house would be leased to a high flying career couple who had recently moved to Israel from New York City. The profits from these properties, she had decided, would be deposited directly into a savings account that she and Tony could keep for whatever they needed.

"Shalom Ms. David. Please, come into my office. The purchase of both properties have been finalized today and the paperwork is here for you to sign." Ziva was relieved to hear this news. A quick turnaround on the sale meant that they could soon be safely home in DC.

"I would like to know the final combined sale price of the properties." Ziva commented, keen to know how much money she would be opening the savings account with when she returned to DC. She had left all of the negotiations to her trusted lawyer, she really had not wanted to get involved.

"Both sales closed with a combined total of 5.2 million shekels." The lawyer confirmed with heavily accented Hebrew. Mr Stein, the lawyer, had managed all of the legal needs of the David family for his forty year career. Despite her suspicion of lawyers, Mr Stein was someone she knew that she could trust.

Ziva did the math quickly in her head; with current exchange rants and accounting for deduction of taxes and fees, Ziva estimated that that would leave around a million dollars to lock safely away in savings and to give a large donation to a refugee charity she knew of in DC. She had yet to decide if she was going to tell Tony just how much money would be in the account, she had debated for both sides of the argument in her mind for as long as she had been planning to sell the properties. They didn't keep secrets from each other, that was why their relationship worked, and it was for this reason that Ziva knew she would probably end up sharing the secret with Tony in the end.

Ziva signed the papers as soon as they were pushed towards her across the mahogany desk, she hadn't realized just how keen she was to sever all but the essential remaining ties to Israel. She had employed a property manager to organize collection and payment of rent and maintenance, which meant that they could leave Israel and she could all but forget about her past life. A line in the sand, she had heard people refer to it as.

"Thank you for everything you have done for my family Mr Stein, your hard work and dedication will be rewarded. I hope your retirement is enjoyable." Mr Stein had shared with Ziva that the processing of the property sales would be his last task before his long awaited retirement, the fees he would be earning from the sale going a long way to building a peaceful and relaxing winter of his life.

With a parting handshake Ziva collected her things and walked out of the office, a lightness coming over her as her heels clicked on the marble floor. Tony was waiting for her in the lobby, reading an English language newspaper and periodically checking his phone.

"Let's go home." Tony could easily read between the lines of the comment.

Home…America…DC

They stepped out of the cool building and out into the cloying air of the busy Tel Aviv street. Ziva had parked their rental just five blocks away and so they set about walking towards the car.

They'd walked no further than a block and a half when the screech of tires caused Tony to turn and look behind them. What happened next was a blur of shouting, dust and the sound of metal being crushed against stone. Milliseconds after Tony had turned his head and yelled Ziva's name a large black SUV had mounted the sidewalk and smashed into the building just inches from where they had been stood. Tony had grabbed hold of Ziva's arm as soon as his brain had computed what was happening, he'd pulled her tightly towards him as they both went crashing down onto the burning hot sidewalk.

It was the sound of the SUVs horn blasting constantly and the sound of people yelling around them that broke Tony from his daze. As the dust settled he took in the chaos that had fallen around them.

"Ziva? Ziva? Are you okay?" He asked anxiously, shaking Ziva who had remained curled tightly into his arms.

"I'm fine…I'm fine. What just happened?" She asked, confused about how they could have gone from walking one minutes to on the floor covered in debris the next. Her first thought was car bomb, it was something she had experienced before but as she untangles herself from Tony and the debris that was around them, she realized what had actually happened. She looked around the scene that had unfolded before her; this wasn't good, this was definitely no accident. The occupants of the car had fled but their actions had been precise. There had been no damage to any other car on the street and no injuries to any of the other people who had been walking the busy street.

She knew exactly what this was, she believed that she could even go as far as saying she knew who had been behind it.

"We must go, we have to leave tonight. All of us." She pulled herself up off the floor, dusting off her clothes and beginning to step over the bits of mangled metal.

Tony was shocked; shocked that this had happened and shocked that Ziva clearly didn't think it had been an accident.

"Wait, Ziva…you're bleeding!" Tony lifted his hand to a gash over Ziva's eyebrow, a slow trickle of blood had begun to run down her face. Ziva lifted her hand to her head and looked at the blood as she pulled it away. She hadn't even felt the cut on her head but it didn't matter now, she just needed to get them out of here.

"It is fine, just a scratch. I'm fine, we are fine but we really need to get out of here Tony." Ziva could hear the police sirens in the distance and her anxiety increasing, the last thing they needed was to be questioned by the police.

They almost ran the three blocks to the car and Ziva had driven back to the house with a desperate urgency that Tony had not seen in her for many years.

"What the hell was that Ziva?" Tony asked, once they were finally back in the relative safety of the gated compound and the David family home.

Ziva let out a heavy sigh and headed straight for the ground floor bathroom. She examined the cut to her eye, almost certainly caused by glass that had flown when the SUV had ploughed into the stone building.

"Mossad." Ziva needed no other words, Mossad had happened and now they needed to leave.

"Shoshana! Please pack up all of your things, we must leave this evening." Ziva yelled in hebrew into the house as she exited the bathroom. Shoshana came rushing into the large open hallway, asking anxiously what had happened and whether they were okay.

Ziva had reassured her as best she could, telling her only that things had changed and that they needed to leave sooner than planned. Shoshana had been worried about Ziva's baby, but Ziva had easily reassured her that everything was fine. She had not fallen onto her stomach, had not been hit with anything and was not in any pain. Once she was satisfied that both Tony and Ziva were well, Shoshana had rushed off to her small annex to pack up her belongings, grateful that she had had the foresight to begin doing this as soon as Ziva had suggested that she return to the US with them.

Five hours later, Ziva finally let out a large sign of relief. They'd manage to pack up all of Shoshana's belongings, less just two pieces of furniture that she was attached to and that would need to be shipped to the US at a later date. Now, safely in their first class seats on an El Al flight to New York Ziva felt that she could finally relax. She had done it, she had got them all out safely.

Shoshana was a mix of nervous and excited energy. She had never travelled out of Israel before and she had definitely never been on a plane. She was undeniably excited to be travelling to live with Tony and Ziva but she was also afraid of leaving behind a life that she had known, to leave the graves of her adoring husband and much loved children. Ziva didn't underestimate how difficult this would be for her and had promised her that they would create a memorial to Shoshana's family in the large yard of their home in DC so that she could feel close to them there. The home that Tony and Ziva had purchased the year before was a beautifully decorated three storey brownstone in Georgetown. Tony and Ziva occupied the third floor with a large master bedroom and a bathroom and the remaining three bedrooms were on the floor below. One would belong to Shoshana and Ziva had assured her she could decorate it however she liked.

"Zivaleh, will there be a shul that I can attend in America?" She asked nervously, looking across the aisle to Ziva who was smiling at her warmly. Ziva reached across the aisle and took Shoshana's hand in hers.

"There will be many for you to choose from. There are kosher delis and supermarkets for you to shop at, Israeli restaurants that we can eat in and even a Hebrew bookstore. You will feel at home in no time, I promise you this." Ziva spoke softly.

They were going home and everything would be okay now that they were all together.

~*TIVA*~

**I had planned to make this just a oneshot story but would anyone be interested in further chapters? If you would like to read more let me know and I will write more. **

**Thank you for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm really sorry this update has been such a long time coming but the world went kind of crazy…I hope there are still have some readers out there and that you enjoy this chapter! Th****ank you for reading. **

**~*TIVA*~**

The phone ringing at 2:30am on a Sunday morning meant only one thing in the lives of Team Gibbs. It meant somewhere out there, and it really could be anywhere, a murder or an equally grizzly crime had been discovered. Ziva let out an exhausted groan as she rolled over and reached for the phone on the nightstand; she hadn't really been asleep but she had still been hoping she might catch at least a few hours of sleep before the sun came up.

"David." She answered curtly.

"DiNozzo." The gruff voice replied.

"What?" She responded, it was far too early for games.

"Ziva, I called Tony." The voice of Gibbs spoke with a generous amount of frustration lacing his words.

"Oh….was there a reason for your call?" Ziva asked; responding to his tone with one of her own, knowing that he wouldn't be genuinely angry with her irritated back chat. She closed her eyes as she spoke, willing the response to be something that would allow her to stay in bed.

"Murder. Need you both at Seneca Creek State Park." As soon as his instructions were delivered Gibbs hung up, providing no further details.

"Why do people insist on committing violent crime at such unsociable hours?" Ziva muttered to herself as she swung her legs out of bed. Her skin prickled as the cool conditioned air rushed against her skin and she reached for a pair of yoga pants, grateful that a more casual attire was acceptable for middle of the night call outs.

Once she was dressed in yoga pants and a hoodie her attention turned towards Tony. He was not an easy man to wake from a deep sleep, evidenced by the fact that he hadn't even stirred when the phone rang. Ziva often wondered who he had managed when he had lived alone, she supposed that he must have been a lighter sleeper when he had not had her to rely on. Ziva had found, through many years of trial and error, that the best way to wake Tony from his sleep was to flick on the brightest light in the room…something that she often did with great pleasure.

"Ah! Ziva! What the hell!" Tony grabbed Ziva's pillow and shoved it over his face in an attempt to block the blinding light that was filling their large master bedroom.

"Get up Tony, we have to go." Ziva snatched the pillow from his hands and replaced it with a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

They didn't have time to mess about, the longer they took to get to the crime scene the harder it was to collect usable evidence, especially with a mid-summer storm firmly on the horizon. Not only is physical evidence washed away by rain but trawling through the woods in the pouring rain was not something either of them wanted to do.

As quickly and quietly as they could, being careful not to wake Shoshana as they descended down the two flights of antique wooden stairs, they made their way to the blue Ford F150 they had purchased exactly for this purpose. Tony's sensible SUV was great but it was no match for some of the terrain they covered on call outs, it had been a God send the week previously when the MCRT truck had got stuck in mud. The truck was certainly more comfortable for longer journeys and had all of the gadgets that made travel so much easier.

Seneca Creek State Park was an easy 40 minute drive North West of their idyllic Georgetown brownstone. Seneca Creek wasn't somewhere they went often, owing they assumed to its reasonably long distance from DC. The vast state park follows the creek as it meanders towards the Potomac River, Gibbs had not provided any idea on where in the huge park their services were required but the flashing lights of emergency services usually gave it away.

"It's creepy up here at night." Ziva noted as she looked out of the windows onto the endless miles off dense trees, a hot humid mist hung in the air adding to the spookiness. The drive had not been unpleasant, though the stifling humid heat was not something that Ziva enjoyed and she was not thrilled to have her long yoga pants tucked neatly into socks inside her walking boots.

True to form the flashing red lights of local police cars and ambulances directed them easily to their location. The vehicles were stopped at the end of a dirt track which seemed to be inaccessible to vehicles.

"NCIS, Special Agents DiNozzo and David." Tony introduced them as they both stepped out of the truck and presented their badges to the police officer standing guard at the crime scene tape. "What have we got?" He added.

"Female victim late 20s, we checked her ID and it says she's a marine dependant so we called you." The young local police officer responded dutifully albeit nervously, this was clearly his first murder and his first time dealing with federal agents.

Without needing any more information from the office Tony and Ziva stepped underneath the tape and began the long trek down the unlit dirt path. It was no wonder that the emergency vehicles hadn't attempted to drive towards the scene, the further down the path they walked the thicker the tree coverage became until they were stepping over fallen branches and pushing through undergrowth.

"I hate hot weather and crime scenes." Tony winged, swatting away at least two mosquitos that he had felt land on his bare arm. Ziva rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly, she loved him but his complaining really drove her crazy.

"The less you complain the soon we will be done." She replied sternly, sounding just like the mother she would soon become. Very few people knew of her pregnancy, which was still in its early stages. She and Tony had of course told Gibbs but had elected not to share the information with any of their other colleagues and friends until they could no longer keep it a secret.

Finally they arrived at their crime scene and were greeted by two officers who had been stood guard until their arrival. The scene that greeted them was not particularly gruesome but tragic none the less. The body of the female was led face down on the muddy sand with her bare feet in the water, mercifully she was fully clothed but, Ziva considered, very overdressed for the blisteringly hot early August weather. She was wearing tight jeans, a slightly loose fitting long sleeved sweatshirt and delicately patterned dark pink scarf around her neck. She had long thick hair that fell down her back in ringlets and her nails were painted a beautiful shade of pale purple.

"Sorry we're late, Genius took the wrong exit on the highway." Gibbs spoke with the same frustration in his voice that always seemed present, this time directed towards McGee who followed closely behind him with a sheepish look on his face.

Gibbs stepped closer to the body and examined her in the same way that Tony and Ziva had done just moments before. "Duck, any thoughts on a time of death?" He asked Dr Mallard and Jimmy as they too stepped under the second perimeter of crime scene tape.

"Jethro, as brilliant as I am I am not a psychic." Ducky scolded Gibbs as he stepped passed everyone to examine the body of the woman. Gently he lifted her hand and placed her finger on the electronic reader. "Marine dependant Mariam Ahmadi, wife of Corporal Fahad Ahmadi, 26 years old. Mr Palmer, help be turn her onto her back." Ducky asked, kneeling down onto the sand.

The large stab wound to her abdomen was the first thing that everyone noticed when Mariam was turned over and the lack of a blood pool was the second.

"Ah large wound to the abdomen, liver temperature indicates that she died between six and 8 hours ago. Jethro, I do not think that this is your primary crime scene." Working quickly with the assistance of Jimmy, Ducky secured Mariam's body onto the gurney to begin the long trek back up the track to their truck.

"Wait, Dr Mallard! What is that?" Jimmy pointed to a small screwed up piece of paper that appeared to have fallen from Mariam's clasped hand as they adjusted her in the body bag.

Gibbs picked up the paper with his gloved hands and opened it, frowning at the paper,

"Ziva, it's Arabic, read it." He thrust the paper at Ziva and she opened it further so that she could see clearly the scribbled words on the page.

"Please help me God, they are going to kill me." Ziva read clearly the words that had been written by Mariam on the scrap of paper. It was clear that she had written them in a hurry, the letters were sloppy but still clearly legible. It was clear that Mariam had known the people responsible for violently ending her life.

"You two, go to Corporal Ahmadi's home and notify him. I want to know everything about where he was yesterday. McGee you're with me, when we get back help Abby process this evidence. I want something to work with before sunrise."

"On it Boss." All three responded, knowing exactly what they needed to do and where they needed to be.

~*TIVA*~

Ziva really hated notifications and everyone knew it, it was the reason why Gibbs so often assigned that job to her. She hated distressed relatives and having to explain what had happened without traumatising people with the gory details.

Fortunately, it was just a short 15 minute drive to the off base home of Corporal Ahmadi. The neighbourhood was quiet, unsurprising given that it was not even four o'clock in the morning on a Sunday. The houses were all a modest size with smart cars parked in the driveways and well cared for yards. As Tony pulled their truck around the corner towards the Ahmadi house all the hairs on Ziva's arms stood up on end and she reached for her gun, every single light in the two storey home was on. The home stood back from the road at the end of a path and four small steps, a large tree to the right of the path sheltered the house and the path was lined with smart evergreen plants. Tony killed the lights on the truck and the sat silent for a minutes looking out for any moment from the house.

"We go together into the front, I don't want either of us separated in there." Tony said calmly, the house was by no means a mansion but he'd learnt the hard way that people found more than creative places to hide and prepare to ambush unsuspecting federal agents.

"Agreed." Ziva responded as she stepped quietly out of the truck, pushing the door closed gently to avoid unnecessary noise. They approached the house with silent steps, climbing up onto the porch and knocking on the door.

"NCIS! Anyone inside come out now and show me your hands!" Tony yelled as he pushed open the unlocked door before stepping inside with Ziva's back firmly against his. Ziva nudged Tony with her elbow silently and gestured towards the bottom of the stairs where he spotted a large pool of blood. "Primary crime scene." He whispered.

After clearing the house and being satisfied that there was no one else there they returned to the downstairs hallway and began collecting evidence. Something wasn't right, Ziva knew, there was a full meal prepared on the stove and a pile of laundry that was halfway through being folded in the living room. There didn't appear to be obvious signs of a struggle or any indications of how Mariam had come to be stabbed to death at the bottom of the carpeted staircase. The biggest question was, where was Corporal Ahmadi?

~*TIVA*~

The air conditioned bullpen was a welcome relief from the oppressive heat of the sun as it rose over Washington DC. With everyone back at the Navy Yard, Team Gibbs finally gathered together to sort through all of the evidence they had collected in what was fast becoming a complicated and challenging case.

"What have you got for me?" Gibbs asked as he took a long sip of his black coffee.

McGee was first to step up to the plate, "Mariam Ahmadi, formally Mariam Hassan. Born in Amman, Jordan and married to Fahad Ahmadi six years ago. She moved to the US after the wedding and was granted citizenship just six months ago, she has been working at a local bank as a teller for five years, no criminal record."

It was Tony who stepped up next, "Corporal Fahad Ahmadi, both in Kuwait to a Kuwait father and Jordanian mother. Corporal Ahmadi and his parents moved to the US when he was three, he joined the Marines right out of high school. His service record of clean but by all accounts he's not ever been motivated to move up the ranks, his current posting is weapons training. Farooq Ahmadi and Shazana Ahmadi sold their home in Bathesda and moved in with the Corporal and his wife approximately five years ago."

"Where are they now?" Gibbs asked.

"We actually don't know. BOLO is out for all three but we don't know how much of a head start they had on us." Ziva answered quickly, stepping back to her desk to check whether there had been any hits. She was frustrated to see no notifications of any hits, people don't just disappear into thin air and she knew that.

"What about her parents?" Gibbs enquired again, trying to put together the pieces of the very messy puzzle.

"Living in Jordan, I was actually just about to call them." Ziva advised, picking up her cell phone and stepping away from the commotion of the bullpen to make the distressing call.

Tony watched as Ziva walked out of the room towards the stairwell, taking a second to admire her ass in yoga pants. Privacy had been at a premium for Tony and Ziva since Shoshana had moved in with them, their house was adequately big enough for all of them but it was an adjustment having someone else in their space. Unfortunately his blissful moment came to a painful end when he felt Gibbs's hand firmly meet the back of his head.

"Sorry Boss, won't happen again."

"Sure it will." Gibbs responded as he rolled his eyes. _Rule 12, exhibit A, _he thought to himself.

It wasn't long before Ziva returned and sat down at her desk with her head in her hands. She was tired to the bone, desperate to get back to bed and angry that she'd had to make that phone call.

"I spoke with Mariam's mother, they had not heard from Mariam for more than a year. This wasn't unusual and they weren't close, she couldn't give me any ideas about who might have wanted to hurt Mariam. The marriage was arranged by Mariam's father, they had not met before the wedding but apparently Mariam wasn't unhappy about it. There wasn't much more she shared that was helpful." Ziva sighed as she spoke, this would for sure be the last notification she would do for a while she would make sure of that.

"Do not despair yet my Dear, I may just have something for you." Ducky's wise voice filled the dimly lit bullpen as he rounded the corner from the stairs. All four agents looked up and eagerly awaiting the information he intended to share. "I have confirmed cause of death as exsanguination from the stab wound to the abdomen, it was a deep wound with bruising from the hilt which I photographed and sent to Abigail. She had no other fresh injuries but I did note a large amount of scarring on her back which looks to have been caused by a burn, liquid or a chemical perhaps. I found fresh semen during the internal examination but nothing to suggest the intercourse was anything other than consensual, I have sent a sample for DNA. She was moved immediately following death, her blood settled in her tissues only once she had been placed by the creek."

"Any chance the wound could have been self-inflicted?" Gibbs asked, sure of the answer to the question but wanting to clarify none the less, after all NCIS do not investigate suicides.

"None." Ducky confirmed.

~*TIVA*~

It was 8am before Abby rushed into the bullpen with results to share. She raced into the room, as she always did, yelling repeatedly for Gibbs and waving her arms frantically.

"Gibbs! Thank goodness you're here! I got the DNA results back from the semen and this is bad, very bad. I ran it three times to be sure but every single time I got the same result." Abby's panicked voice caught the attention of Ziva and Tony who had been at their desks reviewing Corporal Ahmadi's service record in more details.

"Are you going to share?" Gibbs asked Abby gently but firmly, keen to know the information which had her racing into the room with such concern.

"Well, the DNA came back a match to Lieutenant Commander Sebastian Grayson." Frowns fell on the faces of all the agents as brought his face up on the plasma, where had this man come from?

"Who he?" Tony asked as he screwed up his face. Sebastian Grayson was a plain looking man; he had very short blonde hair and brown eyes, he was skinny and his eyes were much too close together, Tony thought.

As quickly as he could McGee searched the Navy database for any information he could find. "Lieutenant Commander Grayson joined the Navy 20 years ago, returned from deployment on the USS Seahawk six months ago and been on medical leave ever since after injuring his knee. Doesn't look like he's ever served in any of the same places as Corporal Ahmadi." The link between the Navy Lieutenant and their dead Marine wife was no clearer.

Gibbs opened his draw and pulled out his badge and gun before taking one last long sip of his coffee. "McGee with me, we're going to pick up Grayson. Tony, make sure she eats breakfast." He pointed at Ziva who was sat at her desk with her head resting on her arms and her eyes closed, she would insist that she wasn't sleeping but Tony knew exactly how tired she was.

Once he was sure no one was around Tony approached Ziva's desk quietly and brushed a strand of hair out of her face, surprised that she didn't even flinch. She looked beautiful when she slept, Tony thought, resting and at peace with the world.

"Babe? Come on, I'm taking you for breakfast." Tony whispered in Ziva's ear. She groaned a she woke and screwed up her eyes tightly, struggling to keep her eyes open. Tony took both of her hands, swivelled her desk chair around to face him and pulled her to her feet.

She didn't protest the idea of breakfast, she was after all really hungry for pancakes. She wrapped her arms around Tony for support, her tired muscles unable to keep themselves upright for very long. It wasn't a secret on the Navy Yard that they were together, in fact it had been that way for so long that it was a normality now, but neither were into public displays of affection. Fortunately, at 8:30am on a Sunday morning there were very few people frequenting the yard.

"You okay Babe?" Tony asked; Ziva knew there were two sides to his question, he was asking whether she was okay with the case but also whether she was feeling okay.

"This case is no different to any other Tony, I am fine." She reassured as they strolled hand in hand through the yard towards the diner just outside of the south gate. Murder is murder, Ziva had said on many occasions when she'd been asked how she was managing with a case, all murders are sad and all murders are tragic, she didn't allow herself to feel any personal emotions towards the victims. Despite this front she put on Tony knew that things affected her, the impact of Somalia had never really left her.

They arrived at the quiet diner and sat outside, enjoying views over the Anacostia River. For a blissful hour it felt like they were a normal couple spending a normal Sunday together having breakfast; no murder, no terrorists, no guns.

Ziva smiled up at the sunshine as they walked back through the Navy Yard, her batteries had been recharged and, despite still being tired, she was ready for what the next few hours would bring.

"Morning Special Agent DiNozzo, Special Agent David. Working hard this weekend?" A Marine security guard they knew only as Charlie greeted as he passed them by. Ziva smiled warmly back, exchanging pleasantries with him for a couple of minutes before carrying on their journey. Charlie was a cheerful man in his early 60s, approaching retirement but still with same the enthusiasm for job as the day he had started.

The enjoyable breakfast, good weather and pleasant conversation with Charlie had left Ziva's mood much improved, which was a good thing given that Gibbs had decided that she would be the one to interrogate Leuitenant Commander Grayson.

So it was there that she found herself face to face with Grayson, in the colder than was really necessary basement interrogation room. She had sat in silence with him for a few minutes, observing his body language and making him more than a little uncomfortable.

"May I ask why I'm here?" Grayson asked politely, shuffling in his chair as his discomfort began to become more noticeable.

Ziva pulled a photograph of Mariam Ahmadi from her file and pushed it towards Grayson. "Do you know this woman?"

"Sure, that's Mariam. She works at First City Bank on Clover." He responded.

"How do you know her exactly?" Ziva asked.

"I cash checks in that bank every week and I see her there, a few weeks ago she helped me wire some money to my son, he's doing a study abroad year in Japan right now." Ziva could sense that Grayson was getting more nervous as the questioning continued but she wasn't ready to strike yet.

"Really? Tell me Lieutenant Commander, are you wife and daughter missing him while he's away?" She forced a sickly sweet smile onto her face, lulling the lieutenant into a false sense of security.

"Well sure, my wife is a stay at home mom and so she's finding it tough to be without him. He'll be back just in time for Christmas." Ziva smiled again and nodded her head, planning her next move carefully before she made it.

"I'm sure your wife won't be happy when she learns about your affair with Mariam Ahmadi." Ziva's face was now emotionless as she stared at Grayson straight in the eyes.

He fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat and swear began to drip from his brow, he was about to crumble Ziva just knew it. Suddenly the room didn't feel quick as cold anymore and Ziva could feel a sly smug smile bubbling within her.

"The relationship is strictly professional Agent David, I can assure you of that." Grayson insisted as he cleared his throat.

This angered Ziva, why couldn't he just be honest? He had to know that she knew the truth.

"Liar!" Ziva shouted, slamming her hands against the desk. "Tell me the truth!" She insisted.

"Why do you want to know all this? What did she do? She's just a teller at the bank!" Grayson wiped his brow and took a shaky breath, he was trying hard to keep up the charade but the walls were cracking.

"She's dead, murdered." Ziva spoke bluntly; she found that this was usually the best delivery when talking to suspects, their reaction was often an indication of their guilt.

Grayson took a sharp intake of breath and sat upright in his chair. "No, that's not possible. Are you sure?" He asked, his words laced with despair.

"Very sure. I'm going to ask you again, how do you know Mariam Ahmadi." Ziva hoped this time for the truth.

Grayson put his hands over his face and took a deep breath. Ziva felt sure that he was not guilty of the murder but he was definitely guilty of something.

"What I said was true, I met her at the bank where I cash checks and she helped me wire money. She's really beautiful and friendly and one day I asked her to have coffee with me, she accepted. I'd been having problems with my wife for a long time and spending time with Mariam gave me a joy I'd not had in a long time. About three weeks after our coffee date my wife went away on business and Mariam's family were visiting relatives in Ohio. She spent the night at my house; it was beautiful, we ate dinner together and drank wine and took a bubble bath. That was the first night we slept together and after that first time we just couldn't stop, My wife works weekends and my daughter spends every Friday and Saturday at her best friend's house and so Mariam and I meet at a motel and we spend a few hours together and then she goes to the grocery store, aside from work it's the only place her family let her go to alone." Ziva was surprised at the amount of detail that Grayson had chosen to share, a small part of her felt bad for Grayson but most of her felt disgusted that he would treat his family that way.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Ziva asked, fairly certain she already knew the answer.

"Saturday afternoon, she met me at the motel like normal. We had spent some time together, we had sex and she left at about 4. How did you know about me?" Grayson asked nervously.

"Semen was found during the autopsy, DNA said it's yours. Do you know anyone who wanted to hurt Mariam?" Ziva asked, hoping desperately for even a tiny lead.

"No, she was amazing. The kind of person that everyone just loved. I know she had a difficult relationship with her in laws, especially her mother in law. She told me once when they'd been in Jordan a few years ago that there'd been an accident in the kitchen, her mother in law had spilled hot cooking oil down Mariam's back. She'd sworn it was an accident but I know Mariam had always wondered if it wasn't, maybe it could have been her?" Ziva shrugged, knowing better than to give any reaction to any information.

"What about your wife?" Ziva asked

"No, there's no way she knows. We've been doing a lot better the last few weeks, really patching things up." Ziva frowned, what kind of man was this? Really patching things up with his wife but having sex with another woman in hotel rooms at weekends.

"Nevertheless, we'll need to speak to her." Ziva began collecting up her papers and was about to make for the door when Grayson stood and grabbed her arm.

"No! You can't tell her! She can't know! We've just got our marriage back on track, we've been intimate again for the first time in over a year." Ziva's blood was boiling the more words Grayson spoke and she could contain it no longer.

"Well, perhaps you should have thought about that before you had sex with another woman yesterday yes?" With that she walked out of the room and slammed shut the door of interrogation.

Outside the room was Tony with a big smile on his face; he loved watching her in interrogation, not only did it make him happy to see her being a bad ass, he also thought it as a massive turn on. Ziva eyed him suspiciously, the massive grin on his face seemed inappropriate for this particular moment.

"If you ever have an affair Tony I will castrate you in your sleep." She said in her most threatening voice, her right index finger pressing into his chest firmly. He swallowed a squeak and nodded his head, he knew she was half joking around with him but also half serious. Thankfully he never intended to find out whether the treat was an empty one said in jest.

"Good work Ziva. Go home all of you, get some rest. We'll start looking into the in laws tomorrow. I'll call you if there's any hits on those BOLOs." It was unlike Gibbs to allow them to leave half way through a day but they had been at work since 3am.

This case was getting messier by the second and Ziva had a not so good gut feeling about where it would all eventually end.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that it has sparked your interest about where the story will go. I suppose it's turned into kind of a case fic but there will be plenty of Tony and Ziva at home + Shoshana as well along the way. I really appreciate hearing what you all think so please let me know, especially if there is anything you would really like to see written about. Thank you.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Trying to get updates out as quickly as possible for you all, sorry for the delay. I hope you're enjoying reading, please don't forget to leave a quick review and let me know what you think, it really helps to motivate when I get to hear what you all think. **

**Word of warning, this chapter is definitely M rated!**

**~*TIVA*~**

"Zivaleh, you must eat before you got to work. Please, sit down, I've made Shakshouka." Shoshana fussed around Ziva as she walked into the kitchen first thing the next morning. Ziva and Tony had got home from the office at around 3 in the afternoon the previous day, having worked half the night, and Ziva had only picked at her dinner of pita, olives and fresh hummus.

"I am okay, really. I don't have time to sit but I will take some of that delicious shakshouka to go." Ziva placed her hands on Shoshana's chubby cheeks as she smiled at her, she loved having someone around to mother her but she was acutely aware that the elderly lady found it difficult to keep pace with Tony and Ziva's busy lifestyle.

"I'm worried for you Zivaleh, you sleep so little and you eat so little but you work so much. It is important that you keep up your strength." Ziva sighed; adjusting to having a mother figure again was going to be a long road.

"She's fine Bubbe, don't you worry. She snacks all day at work, I'll make sure she eats that breakfast and gets a good lunch. If she's lucky, I might even pick up a bagel for her while I'm getting coffee" Tony had taken to calling Shoshana by the Yiddish word for grandmother, knowing that the baby would think of Shoshana as exactly that…it's grandmother. Shoshana frowned but eventually nodded, trusting that Tony would keep to his word.

With just minutes to spare Tony and Ziva hopped into their truck and headed for the Navy Yard. Their journeys were usually comfortably quiet but today the tension in the car was palpable.

"I'm worried about you Ziva, I'll brush it off to Shoshana but she's right, you're not sleeping well and you're not eating right. What's going on?" Tony asked, introspective Ziva was never a good thing and Tony couldn't wrap his head around why she had been closing into herself since they returned from Israel.

Ziva rolled her eyes; she had never felt comfortable being open about herself, even with people she knew and loved, and she was trying very hard to suppress the urge to lash out at Tony. She'd worked hard over the years to be honest with Tony and she knew that she needed to keep that going.

"I feel…not so much like a mother." Ziva sighed, she didn't really have the words to explain how she was feeling. She had been cautiously looking at some pregnancy blogs and browsing the baby clothes aisle of Target but she'd yet to really feel like the pregnancy was real. She did not have a bump and she had very few symptoms, if it were not for the doctor's confirmation she'd believe that the test had been wrong. She'd never dreamt of having a child; even in recent times it had never been something that she and Tony had discussed, even in passing, as something they felt like their future might contain.

"I don't think anyone feels like a mother until their baby is born right?" Tony suggested, he certainly wasn't an expert on the matter and he didn't have a mother to ask. His feelings towards their impending baby were completely different to those that Ziva had; though the pregnancy had been a complete surprise, he could hardly contain how excited he was. He'd once considered children, many relationships ago, but he'd let go when time had passed without the arrival of any children. The fact that Ziva was pregnant had filled a part of his soul he didn't know was empty.

"Maybe…but…I don't have any feelings. I'm struggling to see how I will be a good mother." Ziva had no idea how to mother another human, she'd cared for people sure but she'd never been responsible for whether they became decent human beings or not.

"I think you just need to relax. Things are still early, it's only been ten weeks. I'm sure things will start falling into place as time goes along." Tony was right; it was still very early on, she had not even had a scan yet. Perhaps, she wondered, that when she finally got to see the baby on the screen she would feel more like a mother.

~*TIVA*~

"Why has there been no hits on those BOLOs? How can three people just disappear?" Gibbs ranted angrily, the team had been in the office for only five minutes when Gibbs had exploded with frustration.

They were no further forward in locating Corporal Ahmadi or his parents, there had been no hits on the BOLO, no one had returned to the property and no hits on any bank cards.

"Give me everything we have on the Corporal and his family." Gibbs demanded, turning back to face Tony, Ziva and McGee and await their information.

"I did some background research and spoke with a contact in Kuwait. Farooq Ahmadi moved from Kuwait to Jordan when he was 15, he had two low paid jobs as a farmer and camel herder before becoming engaged to Shazana Awad. This is where things become…unusual, Shazana Awad comes from a very wealthy family in Jordan. They are…how do you say here, high society? I do not understand how this marriage happened, there is no evidence of Farooq and Shazana having even travelled to the same cities, let alone living in the same places." Ziva recounted the information she had obtained from an old Mossad colleague who had been working in Jordan for many years. The contact, Yael Haas, was one of the very few people in Mossad she had kept in contact with.

"Is Fahad their only child?" Gibbs asked.

"No, Fahad is the youngest of six children. Five daughters and one son; Alia, Amal, Raima, Zahira, Maha and Fahad. All five daughters are married to Jordanian businessmen, they never travelled here to the US to live with their parent and brother. My contact reliably informs me that Zahira's husband is a distant member of the Jordanian royal family and Maha's father in law is a well-respected politician." Gibbs rubbed his hands over his face as he listened to Ziva's information, this case was going to get sticky.

"So they're a well-connected family. Why did the daughters remain in Jordan? Why didn't they all move to the US?" Gibbs asked, trying to put the pieces together to figure out where on earth this case was going.

"It would appear that the daughters all had marriages arranged from young ages, marriages that would set them up for life. Fahad was their only son, they would have been keen to ensure he had the very best opportunities in life." Ziva surmised, this was the last of the useful information she had obtained from Yael.

"What about our victim?" Gibbs asked, becoming more and more agitated that no one had any information for him that would track down their main suspects.

McGee stepped forward and put up three pictures on the plasma screen, "Mariam's parents are Laila and Kazim Al-Hodi, and she had a twin brother Malik who lives in Australia with his wife Annie. Malik and Annie had three children; Grace, Lydia and Joey. Malik left Jordan as soon as he was 18 and studied medicine in Australia, where he is now a citizen." McGee concluded, providing another dead end.

"DiNozzo, please tell me that you have something useful for me." Gibbs barked.

"Um actually Boss, it seems like there was a problem with the BOLO system yesterday…no BOLOs issued yesterday made it to port authorities." Tony winced as he spoke, he knew this was going to anger el jefe.

"Are you telling me that they could have left the state, hell even the country, and no one would have noticed!?" Gibbs yelled, he clearly had not had enough coffee yet this morning to be able to deal with information like this.

"Yes Boss, that's exactly what I'm saying…but, my contact at port authority just emailed me some information. Shazana, Farooq and Fahad Ahmadi left on a flight from Dulles yesterday evening bound for Istanbul with a connecting flight to Amman." Tony winced again, this was really bad news.

Two hours later Gibbs and Ziva was stood in MTAC awaiting a connection to an NCIS field office in Perth. McGee had managed to speak with Special Agent Pearson in Perth just moments before he had been due to go home for the evening, luckily Agent Pearson had tracked down Malik and brought him into the field office for questioning.

"Agent Gibbs, Agent David. Nice to see you." Agent Pearson spoke as his face came up on the screen. "Mr Al-Hodi, please step outside when the call is finished and one of my agents will escort you out." The sound of a door clicking signalled that Agent Pearson had left the room, leaving Gibbs and Ziva alone with Malik.

He was taller and more handsome than Ziva had expected; his youthful glow was obvious underneath his dark hair, short trimmed facial hair and dark eyes.

"Can you tell me why I am here Agents?" Malik asked, his eyes questioning as he spoke. It was clear that he had not had any contact from his family and was unaware of his twin sister's brutal murder.

"Need to talk to you about your sister. You speak with her recently?" Gibbs asked, not giving anything away.

"Not for several weeks, we usually only talk once a month." Malik replied, still confused about why he had been pulled from his home at 10pm by American federal agents.

"Mariam was found murdered yesterday, how well do you know her husband?" Gibbs asked, keen to try and get as much information as he could that might help them unpick the mess that this case was quickly becoming.

The shock on Malik's face was obvious, he clearly had not had a close relationship with his twin sister but she was his family after all.

"Not well, the marriage had been arranged by our father. My parents unhappy that I'd moved to Australia and married a white woman, they'd been adamant that Mariam would marry a Jordanian man. Fahad was eighteen years older than Mariam, they'd never met before the wedding but that was normal in our culture. She wasn't opposed to getting married to him and the idea of moving to America had appealed to her. We've never had a close relationship with our parents, my father is not always a good man. When I spoke to Mariam last month she did mention that her in laws were angry that she had not got pregnant but she never mentioned any violence. Did they do this? Did they kill her?" Malik asked, desperately trying to remember everything he could that might help.

"Not sure yet but I won't rest until I do." Gibbs assured.

"Fahad and his parents, they know people in Jordan, people that will protect them. Agent Gibbs, please find who did this." Malik spoke the last words in the conversation before the link was cut.

"I want everything you can find on the Ahmadi family; I want to know where they shop, where they eat, where their kids go to school. Everything Ziva, find me everything." Ziva sighed, there were few contacts that she had kept in the area and even less who would be willing to dig around in details of people who were so well-connected.

~*TIVA*~

The rest of the day had passed with very few leads and none that had provided any concreate evidence of the Ahmadi family's whereabouts. Ziva had been unable to track where they had gone after they had cleared customs in Amman but had managed to find information on the location of extended family members which may yet prove useful.

Gibbs had allowed them to go home at 7pm after finally accepting that no useful more information would be coming in overnight. After a quick dinner prepared lovingly by Shoshana, Ziva found herself in a long extra hot bubble bath.

"Knock knock." Tony's voice sounded through the door of their master bath as he pushed it open.

Ziva had carefully designed their master bathroom, they'd had the luxury of being able to do home improvements before moving into the large Georgetown home and the bathroom had been Ziva's special project. The floor was tiled with blue and white Middle Eastern patterned tiles that she had purchased from Israel and the walls were painted in a pale calming pastel blue. The bathtub was large, easily big enough for two, and stood on a platform towards the back right corner of the room.

"Room for one more?" Tony asked, knowing the answer to the question and stripping off his clothes without waiting for her answer.

He carefully slipped into the tub behind Ziva and took her into his arms, allowing his hands to rest gently against her thighs. Having Shoshana in the house had made intimacy distinctly more difficult than either had anticipated it would be, her bedroom was just one floor below the master suite and the fear of her hearing their activities had been a big turn off in recent weeks.

"We're home alone." Ziva pointed out with a devious smile on her face. Shoshana had gone to an evening seminar at the Synagogue and would not be back until 11pm, giving them at least the next two hours alone. For a couple who used intimacy as an effective way to relax and decompress after a difficult day they really needed to figure out a way to be unconcerned about Shoshana's presence.

"Mmm, I like where this is going." Tony replied, kissing Ziva's neck as he moved his hands up from her thighs to gently squeeze her breasts. Tingles ran through Ziva's body as Tony's hands massaged her nipples gently. "As much as sex with you in the tub is really amazing, it's not the most comfortable." Tony spoke again as he continued to kiss Ziva's neck.

Ziva giggled; they'd had sex in the tub once before and while she agreed, it had been amazing, it had also been difficult to feel completely comfortable. She smiled seductively as she stood and stepped out of the tub, extending her hand out to Tony and encouraging him out of the tub.

"Bed?" Tony asked, as he stepped fully out of the tub and placed both hands on Ziva's hips. Ziva smiled again, taking her bottom lip between her teeth. The sexual tension between them had been building for over a week and her nerve endings were going wild, she could easily see Tony was feeling the same way.

"I don't think there's time." She whispered, hopping up onto the large spacious marble countertop next to the sink. Tony smiled happily, he loved all sex but fun crazy sex was definitely the best.

He needed no more encouragement other than seeing Ziva hop up on the counter, he approached her as quickly as he could on the wet slippery floor and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her neck again. Ziva moaned as he nipped her skin and massaged her thighs, he knew that she was ready and he was definitely ready but it was more than just sex, it was the intimacy of the moment which made it for him. Ziva wrapped her legs tightly around Tony's hips, adjusting into the perfect position. Both Tony and Ziva sighed happily as he finally slipped inside her, it was a sensation they were both so familiar with but that always felt amazing. It didn't take long for them to find their rhythm, Ziva's moving up to meet Tony's thrusts as she braced herself on the counter with her arms behind her. She moaned loudly as Tony continued his long slow thrusts, moving her hands from behind her to around his shoulders and digging her nails into his skin.

"Mmm, stop." Ziva moaned, knowing that it would be almost impossible for Tony to halt his smooth thrusts. Ziva had felt herself getting close to the edge and she wasn't ready for the moment to end. "I want to try something else." She moaned, pushing Tony away, forcing him to slip out of her as she moved off the counter.

Tony had learnt over the years that the best thing to do when it came to sex was follow Ziva's lead. There was no denying that he was a very experienced lover but when it came to putting excitement into intimate activities, Ziva was always the expert. She took Tony's hand and led him out of the bathroom and into the bedroom before she lay down on the bed gently and onto her side. Tony knew where she was going with this and led down behind her on the bed, snuggling into her back and lifting her right left gently before sliding back inside her and rocking his hips against her back. This position had become Ziva's new favorite and it wasn't long before they were both falling over the edge.

"We need to get back to doing that every day." Tony commented causing Ziva to chuckle, he certainly wasn't wrong about that. They'd been used to a very healthy intimate relationship over the years and so the difficulties expressing that with their new permanent house guest had complicated things.

Ziva sighed as she snuggled into Tony's chest, sex always helped her to feel relaxed and take away the stresses of a hard case.

"You okay?" Tony asked, he had their earlier conversation in the back of his mind and was conscious that particularly adventurous intimate activities usually occurred in period of high stress and emotion.

"Better now, this case is getting to me. I worked a similar case in Mossad; a daughter of a Mossad commander, Hanna, ran away from Tel Aviv to Lebanon to marry her boyfriend. His brother did not approve of him marrying a Jewish girl and he pushed her down a flight of stone stairs. She was dead before she reached the bottom, she was only 17." Ziva recounted the story with pain in her eyes, she had only been 21 at the time she had been sent to Lebanon to find out who had murdered Hanna. She had been a friend of Tali's from school, someone who had slept over at the home on many occasions before meeting her boyfriend Khalid at a party while visiting family in Northern Israel.

"We'll get them Ziva." Tony reassured her in the same way Gibbs had reassured Malik just hours previously. Despite how complicated the case was getting, Tony was confident they would track down Fahad and his parents and prove they were responsible for Mariam's murder.

"I did not catch Hannah's killer, no one did. We could never find him, I could never track him down. Khalid begged us to continue searching for his brother to bring him to justice but Mossad did not feel it a sensible use of resources to search for one man. There were several Israeli air strikes on southern towns in Lebanon that year, I'm sure the two things were connected." Mossad was a painful subject for Ziva, it was something she had come to speak of very little in the years since she had become an American citizen.

"Mariam is not Hanna and this is not Mossad. We're going to get them Babe and they're going to face justice." Tony whispered against Ziva's lips, pressing three delicately loving kisses to her soft lips.

Just as the kiss began to heat up Tony's phone began to buzz on the nightstand. Groaning loudly and wincing as he rolled away from Ziva's warm arms, he answered the call.

"DiNozzo, McGee just you through a photo of a note found folded in the pocket of a coat in Mariam's closet. Need Ziva to translate." As Gibbs spoke Tony's phone chimed and the photo popped open on the screen. He passed the picture to Ziva to read the cursive Arabic letters with skill.

"It is an address in Aqaba but it does not say who the address belongs to. The note below reads 'I know what you have done'. It is written by two different people, like the address was already on the paper when the note was written, it is possible that the address is completely unrelated to the note." Ziva had been reading Arabic since she was very young and her ability to translate text instantly that would take an agency translator days to process had been an invaluable asset.

"I need you on that address tomorrow Ziva, contact everyone you know and find out who lives at that address." With that Gibbs hung up the phone, leaving Ziva with a frown on her face.

"We'll get them." Tony reassured again, pressing his lips back to hers as they were before they were rudely interrupted by his cell phone. "We still have an hour before Shoshana gets back." He whispered against her lips, enjoying the feeling of her smile against his.

Tomorrow they would get back to working tirelessly to find Mariam's killers but tonight was just for them.

**If you liked then go ahead and favourite, follow and review! Any ideas you would like to see written into chapters can be shared via review of PM, I will take them into consideration when putting chapters together. Thank you for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**If you liked then go ahead and favourite, follow and review! Any ideas you would like to see written into chapters can be shared via review of PM, I will take them into consideration when putting chapters together. Thank you for reading!**

**Hello again! I'm trying to get chapters out as quickly as possible, now that school has finished until October I'm hoping that I can be writing a bit more quickly. Don't forget to review, hearing what you think really brightens my day! **

**There is mention of Ziva's mother in this chapter, if anyone wants visual reference of how I imagine she would have looked I based her off the Israeli actress Shay-Li Atary. **

**~*TIVA*~**

"Do we have any evidence that Ahmadi and his parents actually murdered Mariam?" Ziva asked frustrated as the whole team, including Ducky and Abby, gathered in the bullpen. Ziva had had Hanna on her mind ever since the conversation with Tony, she couldn't let that happen again. Mariam deserved justice and if they were ever going to get justice in this case they needed hard evidence. The absence of Ahmadi and his family were not enough for her.

"That's a good question Ziva…I have the answer. I ran a hair I found on Mariam's body, it still had a root attached and so I managed to get DNA, it came back as Shazana Ahmadi." Abby took a breath before speaking again, "_No surprise there Abby, she did live with our victim._" She said imitating Gibbs. "You're right about that Gibbs however, I also located a bloody fingerprint on a piece of plastic that was inside the pocket of Mariam's pants. I ran the print and it was a positive match to Shazana Ahmadi, the blood was definitely Mariams." Abby concluded, confident that the evidence pointed directly at Shazana Ahmadi as a definite suspect.

"What about a murder weapon?" Ziva asked, unconvinced that a single bloody fingerprint would ever be enough to bring a killer back from abroad and into court to face justice.

"Patience Ziva, I was getting to that. You collected all of the knives from the Ahmadi house but none had traces of human blood. Luckily; McGee and a probie from Agent Warren's team had searched the area and found a large ornamental sword, looks to be Middle Eastern or Asian in origin. Positive swab for human blood, the only prints on the handle belonged to Corporal Ahmadi and his mother." Abby smiled as she finished, proud that she had proven what everyone already believed to be the truth.

Ziva nodded, partially relieved but anxious that they were no further forward tracking the Corporal and his parents. She had had no success with the address in Aqaba that had been on the paper found in Mariam's clothing, it had led them to a small apartment on a building near the docks. It had not appeared to be owned by anyone known to the family and Ziva's Mossad sources reliably informed her that the current tenant was an 80 year old lady whom they did not believe to be suspicious.

"We're never going to find the answers here Gibbs." Ziva spoke frustrated, she couldn't sit around for much longer waiting for her sources to come back with information which was rarely of any use. The family were so well protected in Jordan that there was no way anyone was going to give them up to authorities in Jordan, let alone authorities in America.

"What do you suggest?" Gibbs asked, he could see the cogs turning in Ziva's mind. This was a look he had seen many times before when she was trying to come up with a plan.

Ziva glanced over at Tony briefly before she spoke, "I think we need to go undercover." Her words were firm, she saw no other option.

"Go on…" Gibbs encouraged, wanting Ziva to expand on her thoughts.

"We need to put agents on the ground in Jordan, trying to infiltrate the family and obtain information about where they might be. My contact says that the Corporal's sisters Amal and Maha regularly attend a women's political forum in Aqaba, if I go undercover in that group I could try and find out where the Corporal and their parents are staying. I might even be able to get an invite back to the house, if we move on this immediately we could be in Jordan in time for Eid Al-Adha, it is coming late this year and will begin on Friday. The family are guaranteed to be hosting some kind of celebration." Ziva had calculated everything perfectly in her head, she knew her plan was almost guaranteed to get them where they needed to be, it might even lead them right to the Corporal and his parents.

Tony chocked on his coffee as he heard Ziva suggesting to Gibbs that she go undercover herself, that had not been what he was expecting to come out of her mouth. They had only just returned from Israel three weeks earlier and he wasn't aware she harboured any desire to journey back to one of the most troubled parts of the world.

"Are you crazy?" Tony spoke without thinking, wincing as he heard the words come out of his mouth and turned to look at Ziva as she shot him a death glare that would kill even the strongest of men. Tony realised quickly he would have to think of a way out of this, they had not yet told anyone on the team of Ziva's pregnancy and Tony was very sure that this was not how she had intended everyone to find out.

"Excuse me?" She asked sternly, allowing the anger she was feeling to seep out of her skin and into her words.

"No…uh…I just mean, surely there is someone already in the area that could do this Boss? Aren't there enough Agents stationed in the Middle East already that could pull this off? Why does it need us to travel?" Tony was looking searching his brain to think of things to say that would get him out of the hole he had dug.

Gibbs squinted at him suspiciously before as he considered his words, "It doesn't. Ziva, contact special ops and find out whether they have any Arabic speaking Agents who could go undercover as your husband and then discuss with travel, I want you on a plane by tomorrow night. DiNozzo and McGee, you two stay here and spend the rest of the week speaking to everyone that the Corporal and his family have ever come into contact with."

Tony's eyes widened at the response from Gibbs, suggesting that Ziva should travel to Jordan undercover and a special ops agent that they'd never met before and without him or anyone else from their team.

"Whoa no, not what I meant Boss. I was just saying, I don't know why it needs our team as a whole, not why does it need McGee and I to go along with Ziva. I really don't think that Ziva travelling all the way out there with only back up from someone we've never even…." Tony's words were cut off by a firm slap to the back of the head, eliciting a wince from Tony.

"Do you want in or not DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, frustrated by his Senior Field Agent's personal life encroaching on his professional life and inconveniencing him.

"In…definitely in Boss." Tony replied.

"Ziva, get on to special ops and find an appropriate agent. DiNozzo and McGee, we go as surveillance only, Special Ops will be in charge of this mission." Gibbs threw his coffee cup in the bin as he stormed past his team and up the stairs to see Director Vance, there was no way they could pull this off without approval from the big man upstairs.

**~*TIVA*~**

"What the hell was that Tony?" Ziva asked, furious as she stormed into the locker room behind Tony. He'd been expecting this fight as soon as he words had left his mouth earlier on in the day, he'd disappeared off to the gym for an hour to try and escape her wrath but it looked like his luck had run out.

"Excuse me if I don't want my girlfriend and baby voluntarily walking into a situation that could leave one or both of you dead." Tony spoke firmly as he threw his towel down on the bench and began to strip off his gym clothes.

Ziva could feel herself getting angrier, why couldn't Tony see that travelling to go undercover in this case was no different to chasing after the killers they chased on American soil?

"You almost told everyone Tony." Ziva's voice was quieter this time, she didn't need anyone else who might be lurking in the locker room to hear their business and start the NCIS gossip machine, you could guarantee the whole building would know by lunch if that were to happen.

"I'm genuinely sorry about that Ziva but I won't be sorry for worrying about you and not wanting you to be in dangerous situations. Are you sure this is a good idea?" He placed a cautious but gentle hand against her cheek and cupped her face, rubbing his thumb over her baby soft skin. It was an action that, when she allowed it, often calmed her down in moments of anger and high emotion.

Ziva thought for a minute, could she really be angry with him for wanting them to be safe? She had not had the healthiest relationships with men in her life but Tony had never given her any reason not to trust him, not really. She thought briefly of the situation all the years ago with Michael Rivkin which had almost ended in all three of them dying, she'd been angry with him for questioning her but ultimately he'd been trying to protect her and this was no different.

"It is the only way." She whispered, lifting her hand to hold his gently over her cheek. "I will be asking Agent Khan to come with us, he speaks Arabic and can easily pass off as Middle Eastern undercover. I have worked with him before on a case while I was still Mossad Liaison, he is a good man Tony and he will have my back." Ziva reassured, hoping that her words would settle Tony's fears.

Tony knew Agent Khan but only by name and was surprised that Ziva had worked with him before. He often forgot that there were aspects of her liaison role that existed outside of Team Gibbs. If Ziva was confident that Agent Khan was the right one then he would have to trust her instincts.

"The second there's even a hint of trouble, I'm pulling the plug." Tony spoke firmly, needing Ziva to know he was serious about this, that there would not be another option and that if there was trouble he wouldn't hesitate to tell everyone exactly why he was so anxious about this mission and end it there and then.

"I would not expect anything else." Ziva confirmed she understood, standing up on her tip toes and giving him the lightest of kisses to his lips. "I love you." She whispered, kissing him again before slipping out of the locker room, her anger she held as she left was far less than when she had walked in.

Tony took a sigh of relief as he stepped into the shower; that argument had gone much better than he had imagined it would, he thought to himself. He had imagined Ziva shouting and screaming and swearing in Hebrew, as she so often did when she got really angry. It was unclear to Tony why Ziva being pregnant was such a huge secret, as he thought about it more it occurred to him that perhaps it was because she was struggling so much to settle into being pregnant. He made a mental note to talk to her about that again before they left for Jordan.

When Tony returned home that evening he could hear quiet Ziva and Shoshana speaking in low hushed Hebrew. He smiled to himself thinking of how happy Ziva was to have Shoshana with them and how much she had missed being able to converse in her first language. Although discussions of Israel were generally off the table for Ziva it was undeniable that her language and culture made up a large portion of her identity. Tony had picked up more Hebrew since he'd met Ziva than any other language he'd attempted to learn. Quietly he walked through the large hallway towards the living room doorway, he paused at the threshold and took in the sight before him. Ziva and Shoshana were both sat on the floor and there was photographs scattered across the floor, photographs that Tony had never seen before.

"Shalom." He whispered quietly, not wishing to startle the girls as they sat engrossed in conversation about a picture Ziva had in her hand.

Shoshana looked up at the sound of Tony's voice and motioned for him to enter the room. There was no way he would be able to sit on the floor and get back up, not with his dodgy knee, so he opted to perch on the arm of the corner couch instead.

"Shalom Tony. Ziva was telling me about your impending trip to Jordan and I was telling her about how her mother had spent much of her childhood in Amman." Shoshana passed another photograph to Tony. He looked at it carefully, it was of a small chubby girl with thick wild curly hair that hung low on her back as she stood against a stone monument. The photograph, he assumed, was of Rivka David before she had been a David.

"I didn't know your Mom lived in Jordan." Tony commented as he looked harder at the picture, trying to pick out which features Rivka had passed to her daughter.

"Neither did I." Ziva commented, taking the photo from Tony and staring at it intently.

Shoshana had not intended to open Pandora's Box when she mentioned that she had photographs of Ziva's mother in Jordan as a child. She had assumed that Ziva had known all of the details of her mother's past but, as it turned out, she had been kept completely in the dark.

"Ziva's grandmother met her grandfather when she very young, just 17, they had uh…how do you call it? Shot gun wedding, yes? Chava was pregnant with Rivka when she married Avraham Katz." Shoshana passed Tony a worn black and white wedding photograph featuring a very petite Chava, standing alongside her stern looking new husband. "Shortly after they married Avraham accepted a job in Jordan at the Israeli Embassy in Amman. They had driven back to Israel for Rivka's birth but returned very soon after. Chava and Avraham were blessed with six children in seven years but Chava was not a natural mother, Rivka spent much of her childhood caring for her sisters and brothers. They returned to Israel when Rivka was ten but by the time she had reached adulthood all but one of her siblings had died." Shoshana paused the story as she searched the pile of photographs for the only photograph ever taken of Rivka with all five of her siblings.

Tony ran his fingers over the picture as he considered how history had repeated in so many generations of Ziva's family, it was no wonder she carried the weight of so much trauma on her shoulders.

"Asher died of Typhoid when he was just three, Itai of meningitis at eight and Hodaya and Ezra were thirteen and fourteen when visiting Jerusalem and a bomb exploded on a bus. That left just Rivka and her sister Nurit." Shoshana pointed out each of the faces to Tony and Ziva as she spoke of the children who had lost their lives and those that had survived, it pained her to think that so much loss had come of their families…she too had lost all of her children in tragic circumstances.

"How do you know all this?" Ziva asked, feeling tears coming to her eyes as she imagined her mother keeping all of this a secret. She had never known any of the information Shoshana was sharing and she definitely had never seen the photographs.

"Your mother used to confide in me a great deal Tateleh, her life was very lonely but we were close for a long time." Shoshana whispered as sadness laced her voice, she had been devastated by the death of Rivka which had come so suddenly after the loss of Tali.

Tony picked up a photograph of a woman holding a newborn baby, as she looked blankly at the camera.

"Rivka and Tali." Shoshana whispered, "Motherhood was very hard for Rivka, she had never planned of having children of her own." Shoshana took a deep sigh as she thought back to Ziva and Tali's young years.

Tony studied the photograph in front of him; Rivka's features and body shape were much rounder than Ziva's and her lips much fuller. Her hair hung in the same tight ringlets that Ziva had when she allowed her hair to fall naturally and they had the same permanently sun-kissed olive skin.

"She was very beautiful." Tony commented, offering Ziva a small smile.

Ziva simply nodded, brushing the pad of her thumb gently over the photograph as it if would disappear if she pressed too hard. She couldn't even remember the last time she had seen her mother; they had never been close but there had been no bad blood between them, for which Ziva was grateful. She knew her mother had struggled raising two children with Eli has her husband and she knew that there were days that Rivka had resented her children. The knowledge of how much Rivka had struggled was weighing heavy on the worries she had for her own impending motherhood.

"Shoshana, where did you get all these photographs? Eli told me that he had burned everything." Ziva's voice broke as she asked, remembering the night that Eli raged with anger when she had asked why all the photographs had disappeared from the house.

Shoshana began gathering up the pictures, as if Eli would be there any minute to find that she had hidden them away.

"I had heard from one of your fathers assistants that he had been asked to gather up all the photographs and documents. I knew where most of them were and so I gathered all the ones I thought would be important and locked them away in my room. I knew that your father was hurting and was very angry with your mother for how things ended but I could not let him destroy all the memories." Shoshana placed a hand on Ziva's knee and squeezed it gently, using her free hand to carefully put away the photographs that she had guarded for so many years.

"I am going to start dinner, we have to be up very early in the morning." Ziva stood as she spoke, excusing herself from the room as she so often did when things became emotionally heavy. Ziva found talking about her family very difficult, now that he understood how much secrecy there had been Tony could see why.

"Is she going to be okay Bubbe?" Tony asked, genuinely worried about what he had heard of Ziva's mother and grandmother and the troubles in the David family that he was already intimately familiar with.

Shoshana smiled and placed her hand against Tony's check, squeezing it gently between her thumb and first finger.

"Do not fret Bubeleh, she will be just fine. Ziva is loved in a way that her mother and grandmother never experienced, it will be this that sees her through. Just you wait until you can see the baby on that fuzzy screen, it will be like nothing you have ever known." She whispered, tapping Tony's cheek lightly with her hand and she stood up with ease.

Tony pondered Shoshana's words; he'd loved Ziva for longer than he cared to admit and that love had seen them both through many terrible situations in the past, some that were easy to think about and some that were definitely not. Frustrated by his inability to predict the future, he decided the only thing to do was accept Shoshana's wise words as gospel.

**More coming soon I promise! Hope you enjoyed! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Welcome to chapter 5, this chapter contains very adult themes which some people may find distressing, please take care of yourselves. **

**Seeing your reviews and what you think of the chapters is awesome so don't forget to review!**

**~*TIVA*~**

Ziva stood with her eyes closed on the small balcony as the hot humid air blew through her hair, the haunting sound of the midnight call to prayer from the many mosques across the city giving her goose pimples as it travelled on the breeze. It had been a long time since she'd heard that sound, what once was familiar was not a ghostly reminder of the past.

"You okay Babe?" Tony asked as he stepped out of the air conditioned hotel room and onto the balcony, he had been watching Ziva standing with her eyes closed facing the city lights for the last fifteen minutes. She had hardly moved from where she was stood and her facial expression had remained unreadable.

"I have not been here for seven years." Ziva spoke in an almost silent whisper, she couldn't muster up the strength she needed to fill her words with sound.

The here Ziva was referring to so painfully was the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, population 188,160 and departure city of doomed ship the Damocles. Ziva chuckled to herself silently that anyone would have named a ship Damocles, given its association with impending doom. Doom had been a good description for what Ziva had felt as she'd watched the flights of Aqaba fade into the darkness that night seven years ago. She'd lost everything; the life she'd created in America, the man she loved, a man she'd thought she could trust and the respect of a father she'd never truly had. She hadn't been able to see a way forward, a way that she would survive without any of those things, and she believed she knew that that mission would be her last.

"I'm glad to be here with you this time." Tony spoke gently, taking two steps closer to Ziva before wrapping his arms around her waist lightly and resting his chin on top of her head.

The significance of this city was not lost on Tony, those weeks when he had believed Ziva had drowned on a sinking ship were some of the worst of his life. He'd imagined Ziva looking out of the city, as she was doing now, and what must have been going through her mind. He'd always wondered whether she'd sensed what was to come or whether it had taken her by surprise.

Silence fell over the city as the call to prayer finished, the only remaining noise was the traffic in the streets below and the breeze rustling the leaves on the palm trees.

"I was ready to die Tony. I had lost everything." She whispered, the words almost getting taken away by the breeze. Her words were the truth, she had been ready, and even when Saleem had pulled the hood from her head that day in dusty Somalia she had still believed her end was close. Her heart had both sunk and shone when she saw him, she couldn't believe that he had found her but she felt a crushing sadness that he would have to be witness to her inevitable execution.

"I know you were but you didn't…you didn't and you're safe now." Tony gently moved Ziva around to face him and pressed his forehead against hers. There were still tangible moments when he struggled to believe he had got her back, that she was stood in his arms and that she was his. Sometimes when he woke without her in the morning he panicked that it had all be some kind of sick dream, that she had been dead all along and his mind was just teasing him with what could have been.

He'd never pressed her to talk about what had happened to her in that camp but he knew. He knew intimately every inch of her body and with that came know every mark that scarred her skin. She'd never spoken the words but he knew what had happened, she was the only female in a camp of sociopathic male terrorists after all. He remembered painfully the night she had shown up at his apartment, tears streaming down her face after she'd slept with Ray for the first and only time. He'd listened as she'd expressed her pain, both physical and psychological, at having been that close to another person again after what she had been through and that that person had been so inconsiderate of her feelings. He'd held her in his arms and promised her out loud that she would never have to worry about him, that he would never do anything that made her feel uncomfortable. He'd been true to his word, never once had he stepped over the invisible line that Ziva had drawn.

"For that and for you I am grateful." She spoke, this time with sound, as she stepped up on her tip toes and kissed his lips gently. She loved Tony with every ounce of her body, he'd come for her when she believed no one would and he'd never let her go since.

"Take a walk with me?" She asked, moving out of Tony's arms and heading back into the room. Tony was familiar with this coping mechanism, whenever Ziva felt overwhelmed or like she had energy she needed to burn off she would go for a walk. Occurring usually at night when she was struggling to settle enough to sleep, Ziva had begun insisting that she go alone but eventually allowed Tony to accompany her as she walked.

Hand in hand they walked through the darkened streets of Aqaba, an olive green embroidered scarf pulled tightly around Ziva's head in an effort to blend in as much as they could. Tony had no idea where they were walking but Ziva knew exactly where her feet were leading them, she had only been to this city a handful of times but the muscle memory was strong. As they came to a stop Ziva walked up to a chain link fence, her hands pressing up against it. On the other side of the fence was a clear view of three of the port's piers, each occupied with large cargo ships being loaded with containers for their onward journeys.

"The Damocles was docked pier four, that there right ahead. I stood here right in this spot the night before it sailed, I had a not so good feeling about it and I should have listened. I did not think that I would end up going on this mission alone, I should not have been so insistent but I did not feel like I had anything to lose…but I lost so much in those months." Ziva continued to stare at the port, watching intently as the cranes loaded the containers and the sailors on deck milled around making preparations to leave.

Tony felt goose pimples forming on his skin, Somalia had created a bond between Ziva and himself and being here where it all began was overwhelming.

"I know you did, I know you did." Tony took Ziva into his arms as he whispered his words.

"You do not know, you think you do but you do not Tony. I need you to know, I need to say it out loud." Ziva pulled away from Tony and stared intently again at the cargo ship sitting in the port. She had never told anyone what had happened to her during those months; some of it was obvious, of course, the scars on her body were hard to conceal. She had had months of therapy on her return to America and even there she had never detailed the abuses, acknowledging only that they had happened.

"You don't need to say the words Ziva, just because you've never said it doesn't mean I don't know that it's true. I know Babe, I know and it's okay." Tony turned Ziva back to face him and cupped her cheeks lovingly. He was surprised to find several stray tears running down her cheeks, tears from Ziva was not a common occurrence.

Ziva took a deep breath and shook her head; he didn't know, he really didn't and she needed him to. She needed there to be no secrets hanging over them when this baby was born.

"I was captured almost immediately, I was arrogant to think it would not happen or maybe I had just accepted that I would die. I was struck from behind by the butt of a semi-automatic and when I awoke I was shackled to the stone floor of a small room, there was only a tiny window with no glass and I could see it was dark by then. Saleem began interrogating right away, he struck me with a heavy two by four across my face multiple times and my right eye swelled shut, I know now that he had fractured my eye socket. For the first five days it was only physical torture but then one of Saleem's men became….frustrated. I was raped many times after that night, I stopped keeping count after the first few days, I did not feel anything by then and every time the door opened I willed myself to die. I was alone in a camp of fifty men, I would never have escaped this and I should have known that. I refused to speak of anything they wanted to know, this only angered them more and Saleem's interrogation techniques escalated. They burnt me with cigarettes and hot metal and slashed my back with their knives. When they pulled me from that room with a bag over my head and sat me on the chair I thought that was it, they were going to shoot me and I was relieved. When I saw you I did not know what to think, I could not see a way out from that camp or from everything that had happened there." Ziva had remained facing away from Tony as she spoke, she couldn't look at him as she let the words flow freely from her mouth.

Tony was struggling to contain the emotions that he was feeling; anger, sadness, pain and immense love for the woman stood before him. He was doing all he could not to throw up on the side of the dusty road on which they stood and to hold back the tears that were brimming at the back of his eyes. He had known all of these things by default but hearing her say the words was different, he felt helpless knowing he could not take that pain away from her. They had been together for five years but he had loved her for many more, he wished he could turn back time and make it all go away.

"Ziva…" He whispered, turning her around and bringing her into his arms. He held her so tightly that he was worried she would break, one arm wrapped around her waist and the other around her shoulders as his fingers laced into her hair and pressed her head into his chest. There was no great show of emotion and Ziva was not sobbing, instead an overwhelming sense of relief had washed over them both, for Ziva because she had finally said the words and for Tony because she was safe in his arms.

Quietly he recalled again, for the second time that night, the memory of her coming to his apartment after she had slept with Ray. She had been crying before she even knocked on his door and once she was inside it was like all the built up pain from the previous eighteen months just spilled out of her. They had sat on his couch, Ziva tucked firmly into his arms as she sobbed in a way totally uncharacteristic for her. She had explained that Ray had pulled her hair even though she had asked him not to and had insisted that he be on top even though it made her feel suffocated. Ray and Ziva had been together for months before she had allowed things to progress to that stage, she had been thinking of every reason she could to delay things. It had happened once and only once, shortly after Ray had gone away for work and returned to be arrested and jailed for murder.

It was six months later that Tony and Ziva finally stepped away from being just friends and into a relationship. A particularly challenging case had left the team feeling frustrated and they had been snapping at each other for days, finally after the case was closed Tony had gone to Ziva's apartment to apologise. They had talked for hours sat together on the couch, hands clasped together and Ziva's head resting on Tony's shoulder.

"_I don't want you to be with anyone else." _Tony had whispered out of the blue when Ziva mentioned that it had been six months since her almost engagement to Ray had ended in disaster.

"_What?" _She had asked in reply.

"_I don't want you to be with anyone else because I want you to be with me." _He had spoken again, his words still in whispers.

Ziva had lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him right in the eyes, seeing his pain and love all mixed together in confusion emotion. She had lent forward and pressed a delicately light kiss to his lips.

"_I don't want to be with anyone else." _Had been her reply, the rest as they say had been history.

Now, here they stood in a city that had changed the course of Ziva's life dramatically.

"I don't want this to change anything." Ziva said firmly, fearing that Tony would look at her differently or that he would treat her differently. She needed him to just be her Tony…that was all she had ever needed from him.

"Nothing has changed Babe, nothing is going to change. You will always be my fierce, beautiful, kind and occasionally terrifying girlfriend." Tony's face broke out into his trademark grin as he spoke, teasing her just enough to make her smile.

Just as Ziva was about to turn to begin their short walk back to the hotel, Tony took her by the hand and stopped her.

"Hey, none of those things you said make you weak. I know you think they do but they don't, you're alive Ziva and that makes you the strongest bravest person I know." It was as if he had read her mind, they had known each other for so many years she supposed it was possible that maybe he had.

"Thank you." She smiled, pressing a final kiss to his lips before taking his hand and setting off back down the street.

It was late and their first six hours in Aqaba had been more intense than either had planned them to be. Sleep was essential if they were to be functional for Gibbs in five hours' time.

~*TIVA*~

The air was already hot at eight the following morning, the breeze from water of the Gulf of Aqaba offering only minor temporary relief. Team Gibbs, along with Agent Khan, had gathered in Gibbs' hotel room which had been designated mission control. A large map of the city had been hung on the wall and push pins placed on areas of particular interest.

"Agent Kahn, I want you and Ziva to drive to address on Damascus Street. This is where the women's political group meet, Ziva I want you to engage with all members of the group. Amal and Maha will know what has happened to their sister in law and may be suspicious of new people. Tony, McGee and I will be in a maintenance truck down the street." Gibbs gave his instructions with military precision.

"Understood." Ziva confirmed, pulling a hijab tightly around her head and finishing her outfit with a long overcoat. Her hair had grown very long in recent months, hanging half way down her back, which meant that it was difficult to contain it under the black fabric.

The journey to the centre had been silent, she did not know Agent Kahn all that well and there had been nothing specific to say. When they arrived on Damascus Street it was more run down than Ziva imagined, littered with small open fronted shops selling clothing and rugs and other small items. Agent Kahn got out the car along with Ziva and turned to meet her as she stepped up the curb.

"Enjoy you meeting my love." He spoke in perfect Arabic, slipping seamlessly into the role of her husband as she lifted one of her hands and kissed it lovingly.

Ziva smiled in response and walked towards the door to the centre, situated above a store selling Persian rugs. The door was non-descript, a simple sign saying 'community centre' was all the identified it. As she climbed the steep stairs, careful not to trip on her long clothes, she could hear the voices of chattering women in the room directly opposite the stairs. As she entered she noted eight women, all dressed in similar attire and sipping Chai from ornate looking cups.

"Salam Alaikum, is this your first time here?" A woman asked Ziva as she entered the room. The woman looked to be in her early fifties, dressed in an elaborate royal blue hijab and matching cotton tunic over black loose fitting cotton pants.

"Yes, this is my first time here. Soraya Ali." Ziva introduced herself politely, accepting a cup of Chai with a smile.

"Fatima Rahal. Come, let me introduce you to the others. Aisha Essa, Maryam Nazari, Noor Saif, Maha Waseem, Amal Abboud and Zarah Halabi. Maha is the chair of our group, her father in law is Minister for Public Safety." Fatima introduced Ziva to all the women of the group before they joined in a circle to discuss the items of the agenda.

The meeting was only scheduled to be an hour long and ran meticulously to time. After the official discussions were completed Fatima brewed more chai tea and the women continued to mingle socially.

"Soraya, I have not seen you at any of our events before. What made you come to join our group?" It was Maha that approached Ziva first, handing her a steaming cup of Chai. Ziva smiled, this had been easier than she had thought it was going to be.

"My husband Amir and I, we have moved here only last week from America. I grew up in Amman but my husband grew up in New York, I was missing home and convinced him that his American education would get him a good job here, he is a teacher. I was hoping we would be in Amman but his job has brought us here." Ziva confidently recited the rehearsed story as if it were truth, smiling at the women who had gathered to hear her story.

"I have always wanted to go to America. Tell me, what is New York like?" Noor spoke with fascination in her voice. She was a smaller than average woman and round like a pudding, Ziva had come to conclude. She was certainly entering the winter of her years, evidenced by the wisps of while hair that escaped fabric of her hijab.

"It is very big, everything is big. I missed home very much while I was there. We will have to adjust to life here too, we do not have any family or friends here so it is just Ahmed and I. My parents are very elderly and so unable to travel and it will be many months before Ahmed is allowed any time off work, maybe then we can travel to see them." Ziva spoke gently, adding sadness to her voice in the appropriate places and watching as the response on the women's faces were just as she had wanted them to be…she was an undercover pro.

"So you will have no one to celebrate Eid with?" Maryam asked. Maryam was the most glamorous and beautiful of the women in the group, she was tall and slim and had big brown eyes that were shaded by long lashes.

"Just Ahmed and I this year, we will celebrate quietly." Ziva reassured.

"Nonsense!" Fatima called out loudly, "Amal hosts an Eid celebration every year and we all attend. You and your husband must come!" She demanded, scribbling down an address on a piece of paper in scruffy Arabic and passing it to Ziva.

"We really would not want to intrude," Ziva assured, smiling nervously.

"I insist. It will help you and your husband meet new friends here. My father in law has many contacts in the Department of Education, I'm sure they would love to meet your Amir." Amal smiled genuinely as Ziva as the women began packing up their things and descending down the stairs and back into the street.

Agent Kahn was waiting in the car for Ziva outside, exactly as planned. He got out of the car once more and took Ziva by the hand, leaning in to kiss her lips gently. Such public displays of affection were unusual but it had all been part of the plan.

"Sorry ladies, she is so beautiful I could not help myself." He joked with the women of the group, oozing charm that made them all giggle like school girls.

"We will see you both tomorrow evening yes?" Amal confirmed just as they were all about to disperse, Ziva gave a simple nod in confirmation before sliding into the car.

"Good job Ziva." Gibbs' voice rang out in her ear. She had almost forgotten that she had been wearing the earwig as they had been completely silent during the meeting.

With the early afternoon sun beating down and plans firmly in place for the following evening that could lead them to the Ahmadi family, Gibbs had insisted that everyone take the rest of the day off. They had to be careful not to be seen too often by anyone associated with the family so as to reduce suspicion that they might be up to something.

Ziva, tired from the morning's events and the late hour they had finally fallen asleep, had decided to lay down on the comfortable bed of their air conditioned hotel room. She had closed her eyes for just a moment when she felt the bed behind her dip and Tony's body snuggling in behind her.

"Are you okay Tony?" Ziva asked, wriggling back slightly and adjusting herself so that she was in a comfortable position in his arms.

"It's weird seeing you kiss another man." Tony commented, eliciting a chuckle from Ziva as she tapped his arm several times.

"I should have known you would be jealous." She teased, turning around in his arms to face him and placing her right arm loosely over his shoulder.

"Not jealous just…anxious." Tony admitted, he often found it difficult trusting others to watch Ziva's back and this was especially difficult now that she was secretly pregnant.

Ziva smiled lovingly, leaning up slightly and cupping his cheek with her hand to press a long slow kiss to his mouth. As she pulled away she rubbed the tip of her nose against his gently and smiled.

"You do not need to be worried, I am not worried. If there is ever a moment where things are not safe then Agent Kahn will have my back." She reassured, kissing him again but this time pressing many tiny kisses to his lips.

"No one watches your back like I do." Tony argued, he wasn't even really sure why he was arguing like this because it wouldn't change anything. He was still going to be relegated to the surveillance van and Agent Kahn was still going to be her fake husband.

"I should hope they do not." Ziva teased again, referring to how often Tony was in fact staring at her ass. Tony chuckled too this time and drew her closer to him so that her head was resting in the nook between his shoulder and chest as he faced her and her legs were tangled with his.

Before they had been together he had never imagined Ziva to be snuggly, he often wondered whether before everything had happened in Somalia whether she had been less cuddly or whether it was just that she enjoyed snuggling with him. Either way he didn't care, having her in his arms after believing he had lost her for good so many times felt like a miracle.

"When are we going to tell people about our bambino?" He asked, curious to know what the time line would be. He had struggled not to let it slip for the last few weeks and had had to censor himself on many an occasion when he was about to make references to nurseries and baby names.

Ziva sighed as she allowed her fingers to run through Tony's hair, she hadn't given much thought to when they would tell people and how real that would then make it for her. If no one else knew then she could still pretend like it was not real.

"Perhaps when we get home yes? We can get everyone over for dinner and let them know. I have already quietly told Agent Kahn, I thought it was best that he knew just in case something were to happen. I have sworn him to secrecy." Tony was relieved that Ziva had shared that information with Agent Kahn, at least the man whom he was trusting to watch her back also knew to watch over their growing baby at the same time.

The room was silent for short while after that, only the sounds of their breathing and the waves lapping at the beach across the street could be heard. Ziva reflected silently on the conversation she had had with Tony about Somalia and how much life had changed since they'd pulled her from that hell hole.

"I never thought I would get pregnant." She whispered, sharing for the first time a fear that she had had ever since her return home.

"What?" Tony asked, encouraging her to continue with whatever it was she was trying to say.

"After Somalia and everything that happened. I thought my body would be too damaged, I spoke to my doctor about it once and he said that there would be no medical reason why it wouldn't be possible but I just never believed it would happen. We've been together five years and we've never exactly been careful, I just figured it wouldn't happen. When I saw those positive tests I couldn't believe it, I think I still don't." Her words were laced with the pain and the suffering she had been through and the fears that had overcome her for so long.

Suddenly it had all made sense to Tony; the fear of motherhood, the reluctance to want to share their news, the lack of excitement. She was terrified that it was not real, that someone would take this away from her just as Saleem's men had taken so much from her all those years before. After the revelations by Shoshana of Ziva's grandmother and mother's struggles with maternal instincts and Ziva's sudden openness about the remnants of her time in Somalia, it was no surprise to him that this baby was all just a bit too much.

He remembered the words that Shoshana had spoken to him the night before they left for Jordan, _"Ziva is loved in a way that her mother and grandmother never experienced, it will be this that sees her through._"

"I love you," he whispered, delicately kissing the tip of her button nose. "We are going to have the most beautiful baby and you're going to be an amazing mom. You survived Babe, and you have a beautiful life. I know we killed every one of those bastards and I am glad for that but seeing you being everything you were always meant to be, that's the real justice." A soft smile came to Ziva's face as she listened to Tony's words. He was so often more wise than anyone gave him credit for.

She made a decision there and then, as soon as this mission was over they would be sharing the news with all of their friends together. After all, they are family, she thought, and family is the most important thing.

**That was quite a heavy chapter but I wanted readers to understand the context behind some of the difficulties Ziva has been having adjusting to impending motherhood…I hope they all made sense!**

**See you next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi again! There was only two reviews for the last chapter :( I know there are more people reading and reviews really help me to know whether you like the direction the story is going or whether you would like to see more or less of something. Please take 30 seconds of your time to review, good or bad it really helps!**

**~*TIVA*~**

The weather was stiflingly hot as Ziva and Agent Kahn drove up the long driveway of the home owned by Amal Abboud and her husband. The home was exactly as Ziva had imagined but nothing like Agent Kahn had expected; the paved driveway was lined with tall palm trees and lush green lawns with sprinkles stood on each side. The house itself was very big and built of the palest yellow almost white stone and stood a tall three stories high. As they continued closer to the house Ziva noted six cars already parked out front, most lavishly expensive Teslas and Range Rovers. Ziva eyed the licence plates carefully and noted at least three had smart looking diplomatic plates.

Ziva hoped there not be anyone there whom she had known in her previous Mossad life, she was sure it had been sufficiently long since her days in Mossad that most diplomatic positions in the region had changed hands many times. Nonetheless, it had only been a very short time since her father's passing in Israel the previous year and his state funeral had been well publicised throughout the Middle East.

Agent Kahn parked the car and both agents stepped out into the midday sun, following a large covered walkway that led them down the side of the property to the enormous beach front back yard. A huge open sided tent had been filled with tables covered in foods and drinks and music was playing from large speakers in the corners of the yard.

It was Fatima that Ziva spotted first, she was stood with a man who was clearly her husband sipping on pomegranate juice from a glass with a paper umbrella.

"Come, we must mingle amongst the crowd so we do not stand out." Ziva whispered to Agent Kahn in Arabic, conscious that those on the other end of their earwigs would be able to understand very little of any of the conversations that would be taking place.

Agent Kahn of course made a bee line straight for the food as, much like Agent DiNozzo, it was his stomach that prevailed in all but a few circumstances. With an almost invisible eye roll Ziva approached Fatima who had been joined by Aisha and Maryam from the women's group and another woman whom Ziva did not recognise, she was swiftly introduced to Ziva as Layla Al-Amin, wife of the Bahraini Ambassador to Jordan. The women made polite conversation about mundane topics such as the weather and the food at the party, before an unnecessarily lively discussion on the best kind of laundry detergent for baby clothes, following which Ziva excused herself as quickly as possible to find Agent Kahn.

"This is pointless, these women know nothing of the crime we are trying to solve." Ziva muttered angrily in English for the purpose of Gibbs, Tony and McGee as she crossed the grass towards the tents filled with enough food to feed thousands.

"Touch it out David, you've only been there half an hour. Corporeal Ahmadi and his parents might still show up." The ever wise voice of Gibbs sounded in her year, causing her to frown in irritation.

She found Agent Kahn ploughing his way through an overfilled plate of Middle Eastern delicacies and treats. It troubled Ziva to think of all the people starving in the world, and in Jordan itself, and here they were standing in front of more food than all the guests at the party could possibly eat. She took a modest portion of food for herself, not wanting to appear rude by not eating anything at all, and continued to mingle about the guests. She was reassured there was no one there that she recognised and confident that no one would recognise her in a hijab and completely out of context.

The party was really in full swing as the sun began to set over the horizon, they had been at the party and mingling with the guests for three hours and Ziva was beginning to tire. They had sat down at a round table with eight chairs and were quietly chatting together when they were joined by Amal, Maha and another woman she had not yet met, all accompanied by their husbands.

"Soraya! I would like your opinion on something." Amal had spoken as they all sat down at the table with Ziva and Agent Kahn. "What do you think about women choosing to divorce their husbands?" Ziva was thrown by the question asked, she had not been expecting Amal to ask such a personal opinion of someone she hardly knew.

"Um…well…I think if there was a good reason for wanting a divorce then I would believe that was acceptable." Ziva gave as diplomatic of an answer as imagined would come from a woman forward thinking enough to attend a women's political group.

Amal frowned and turned to the husband of the unknown woman, "Faisal, what is your opinion as a man?" She asked abruptly, putting the man on the spot.

"I do not believe women should be allowed to make this choice." Faisal's wife appeared to nod in agreement with his opinion but Amal frowned again, clearly trying to come up with her own opinion on what she thought of this matter.

Ziva was confused and unsure why and how this conversation had come up, they had not discussed marriage and divorce rights in the group she had attended.

"Leave it alone Amal." Maha warned her sister before turning back to Ziva, "Please ignore her, our sister in law has recently asked for divorce from our brother and Amal is very upset about this. She has been asking everyone we know for their opinion on the matter." Maha rolled her eyes as she spoke, clearly embarrassed and annoyed that her sister had aired such personal information with virtual strangers.

Conversation moved swiftly away from the legalities of women's rights in divorce and continued into subjects much less taboo for discussion with strangers. Amal was asking Ziva and Agent Kahn about their time living in America and Ziva had politely asked about the work of the women's husbands.

"Do you have other siblings?" Ziva had asked the sisters, hoping that they were far enough into the conversation about families that such a question would not arise suspicions.

"Three more sisters and a brother, our sisters live in Amman with their husbands and our brother moved to the US with our parents when he was very small. Do you have siblings Soraya?" Maha answered, a smile gracing her face as she discussed her family. Ziva quietly hoped that the women did not have anything to do with the murder of Mariam, their personalities were warm and easily likable.

"Had, my sister and my brother were both killed many years ago. Do you ever visit your brother and parents in the US? My husband misses his family there very much." Again Ziva hoped that the question would not arouse suspicion but she needed to get as much information as she could.

"No, we are not close. My sisters and I…we were not happy when our parents left us here and took Fahad to America. We speak with our brother on the phone occasionally but we have not seen our parents since they visited with Fahad and his wife three years ago." Ziva could not detect any untruth in the words that Amal had spoken, if they were to be believed it was entirely possible that neither Amal nor Maha even knew that their sister in law was dead.

As night fell completely over the large mansion Ziva and Agent Kahn made an excuse to leave, thanking Amal for the kind invitation before walking swiftly back to the car. Although this particular mission had gone well Ziva was increasingly frustrated that they were no closer to finding the Corporal and his parents than they were a week ago.

Back at the hotel after a quick debrief on events of the evening, Ziva entered the room and immediately she peeled of the hijab she had been wearing and the long heavy clothing and shook her head, releasing her long waves from the tight confines of the bun they had been in all day.

"That was a pointless evening. We've got nothing, what are we supposed to do now?" Ziva asked angrily, sitting down heavily on the couch in a bra and the loose pants that fit underneath the tunic she had been wearing all day.

Tony sighed, he didn't have any answers that would make Ziva any less angry at the lack of information they had unearthed and that Fahad Ahmadi and his parents had not turned up at the party as everyone had hoped they would.

"We still have that address that we found in Mariam's jacket to check out. Maybe that will get us a lead." Tony attempted to reassure, knowing his words would have very little impact on her mood.

Ziva only grunted in response as she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

~*TIVA*~

The next day found Ziva again in the car with Agent Kahn driving to the address that had been found on the note in Mariam's jacket. It was for a property just north of the city itself, a short 20 minutes car journey away. The neighbourhood was much more modest than the one they had visited yesterday, made up mostly of apartment buildings and small single story homes. The house they pulled up to was a rundown single story home, their searches suggested it was owned by an older lady but Ziva suspected that she was not really the one who lived there. Confident that the address had no connection to Amal and Maha or anyone who had the previous day's party, Ziva and Agent Kahn approached the door together and knocked. The door was answered by a younger man, dressed in western clothing and smoking a cigarette.

"Hi, I'm very sorry to bother you. My wife and I are old friends of the lady who owns this house and we were wondering if she was here?" Agent Kahn asked convincingly, watching the man frown as she eyed them suspiciously.

"She is not here, moved north about two weeks ago, said she needed to help some friends who would be arriving at a refugee camp up there. Don't have a way to contact her, sorry." With that he closed the door abruptly.

Back in the car the cogs in Ziva's mind began to turn swiftly and she began working on a theory. Hiding in plain sight, she supposed was the phrase that best fit the scenario she was working up. As soon as they arrived back at the hotel Ziva frantically began searching all background information available on Mrs Hadid. Abby had search all available databases for information and found only that she had travelled twice to the US and extensively around the Middle East. Her contact in Mossad had been more successful in their searches, Mrs Mina Hadid had volunteered extensively in refugee camps across the Middle East and had attended school with Corporal Ahmadi's mother.

Ziva immediately called a camp fire with the extended Team Gibbs.

"I believe that Fahad and his parents used Mina Hadid to obtain entry into a refugee camp in the north posing as Syrian or Palestinian refugees. In those camps they would be able to hide out for months, even years, before anyone grew suspicious. They are so heavily over populated that it must be almost impossible to keep track of everyone, Corporal Ahmadi would have known that. We need to find out which camps Mina Hadid had connections with and consider going undercover there." Ziva presented her case as eloquently as possible, hoping Gibbs would agree with her analysis of the situation.

"What do you propose?" Gibbs asked gruffly.

"I think Agent Kahn and I should go undercover as volunteers, it would be easier to find them this way then to try and pose as refugees ourselves." Tony was relieved that Ziva's plan did not involve her sleeping in a tent on the floor and surviving on the very basic rations.

"Have Abby check for any links between Hadid and The Ahmadis'. Tony, get in touch with Dunham and let him know to meet us…wherever it is we're going." With instructions given Gibbs sauntered out of the secluded conference room they were in and headed towards own room, followed closely by Agent Kahn who muttered sometimes about needing to go to bed early.

"I'm going to go and call Abby, I'll see you at 0600." McGee spoke as she also left the room, leaving only Tony and Ziva behind.

Wordlessly, Tony took Ziva by the hand and led her through the corridors of the hotel and back into the safety of their room. Ziva immediately peeled off the long coat and hijab she had been wearing all day, both of which made her feel much too hot and the fabric was itchy. She was relieved that the next part of the mission would allow her to wear her own choice of clothing.

"I'm getting in the shower." Ziva spoke as she moved towards the smaller than you would expect for such an expensive hotel bathroom. She pulled off the remainder of her clothes and examined herself in the large mirror that hung above the sink; she was now eleven weeks pregnant and it was starting to show on her petite toned frame. She was quietly grateful that her abdominal muscles were so taut, without that she knew she would not have been able to conceal things for this long.

"Tony, can you come in here?" She called, a mixture of excited and nervous as she waiting for him to come through the door.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked as he pushed open the door, there had been an urgency in his voice that had worried him. As he stepped into the room he saw Ziva stood only in her panties and a bra staring at herself in the mirror. "Is that? That was not there this morning." Tony commented as he stared at her tummy in awe, he couldn't believe that over the course of just the day her tiny bump had announced itself.

"I think so, I do not feel bloated so it has to be. I am not sure I will be able to button my pants tomorrow." Ziva commented, running her hand gently over the tiny bump. It wasn't much to look at, for anyone who didn't know better they would just assume she was a little bloated, some might not even notice at all. However to Tony, who knew every inch of Ziva's body, it was the first thing he saw when he looked at her.

Slowly, and carefully given his damaged knees, Tony bent down so that his face was level with Ziva's tummy button. He placed his hands either side of the tiny bump and kissed it gently before leaning his forehead on her skin. Ziva smiled, feeling excitement about their baby for the very first time. She ran her fingers through Tony's hair and pulled him up to stand face to face with her.

"I love you." Tony whispered, rubbing the end of his nose against Ziva's in a delicate Eskimo kiss. "We won't be able to hide this for much longer." He whispered again, pressing a light kiss to her lips between each word.

"We will not, once this mission is complete we will share our news." Ziva confirmed, feeling surprisingly more relaxed than she had done since she had found out she was pregnant. The feelings of disconnection she had had for all these weeks were beginning to melt away, how that she could see their baby growing. She knew she should have found a doctor before now but she couldn't bring herself to do it, she made a mental note to arrange an appointment with an Obstetrician as soon as they were home.

The rest of the night passed like a flash; Abby had worked through the night and had managed to find communications between Mrs Hadid and Mrs Ahmadi dating back several years. She had confirmed Ziva's hunch as correct, Mrs Hadid had arranged for false Syrian papers to be provided to the Ahmadis and secured passage for them into a large refugee camp just south of the Syrian border. It would be hard to find them there, the camp housed thousands more than its official capacity but this was their last opportunity to bring justice for Mariam.

09:00 saw Team Gibbs, Agent Kahn and Agent Dunham travelling in an SUV north through Amman and towards the camp. Ziva and Agent Kahn had been secured volunteer positions within the camp, with the assistance of Agent Dunham and it was agreed that the remainder of the team would continue with surveillance from a distance. The plan felt safe, although decidedly less safe than they had been in Aqaba, and not being able to be with Ziva in the camp was troubling for Tony. _'You cannot be there Tony, everything about you says federal agent. People will become immediately suspicious.', _Ziva had so eloquently pointed out that morning as they had all be agreeing who would take what role during the mission.

The journey finally came to an end as they approached the gates of the camp. The sight that greeted them was something they had not really been prepared for; tents and shacks spanned for as far as eyes could see and there were crowds of people milling around small prefabricated buildings belonging to various aid originations.

"Wow…" Tony whispered as he stepped out of the vehicle. It was the smell that hit them first, without proper sanitation services and with more people that it was ever designed to house, the camp had a distinctively unpleasant smell. Ziva discreetly covered her mouth and nose with her freshly moisturised hand, trying to make the smell and avoid vomiting right where she stood.

"The volunteer housing is this way, I will check us in with my contact. Bosses know who you are and why you're here but the volunteers on the ground have no idea, as far as they are concerned Agents David and Kahn are here to volunteer for four weeks as part of a humanitarian research project. You will be continuing with your undercover identities; that means you'll be sharing accommodation, the rest of us will be in a hotel in a nearby town." Agent Dunham gave clear instructions before he made his way through the dust towards the main officers of the camp.

Tony knew that this would be how things would play out at some point, he also knew that both Ziva and Agent Kahn were capable agents, but the worry of leaving her in such a terrifying environment was not something he relished. Team Gibbs helped Ziva and Agent Kahn to their accommodation, secluded and unseen away from the camp and therefore safe for Team Gibbs to be without fear of being made.

Inside the room that Ziva and Agent Kahn would be sharing were two single mattresses and very little else. Gibbs and McGee had left promptly when they had deposited the last of the equipment, favouring the cool car over the hot unpleasant smelling outside, leaving only Tony in the room with Ziva and Agent Kahn.

"Are you sure about this?" Tony asked, walking towards Ziva and placing his hands against her hips. Ziva had been right, she hadn't been able to fully button her pants that morning and had been very grateful that Tony had produced a safety pin that allowed her to fasten the pants in place of the button.

"I am very sure it will be safe Tony. Agent Dunham's contacts believe they had located the Ahmadis, I also have a contact here who had provided the same Intel. I believe that we will be able to apprehend them this week, we will be home in time for Shabbat." Ziva smiled, wrapping her arms around Tony's waist and leaning her head on his shoulder. It would be difficult without him, she had become accustomed to sleeping with him at night and she found herself struggling to settle without him.

Agent Kahn smiled at the couple from across the room, they were somewhat of a legend on the Navy Yard and to experience their connection first hand had very interesting. The day before the mission Ziva had shared with him the news of the impending baby DiNozzo and he also knew that outside of Tony and Ziva no one else at NCIS was aware of this news.

"Don't worry Tony, I'll take care of them both." He reassured, knowing that Tony was struggling to let go of Ziva and leave with the rest of the team.

"Thanks man, appreciate that." Tony replied as he shook Agent Kahn's right hand with his left, his other arm remaining firmly around Ziva as she continued to rest her head against his chest. "Okay, I gotta go. I'll see you both when this is all over, I love you." Tony whispered against Ziva's lips, not caring that Agent Kahn was still stood just feet from them.

"You will, I promise." She whispered in response, smiling as he kissed her for a final time before turning and leaving the room.

It was going to be a long few days.

~*TIVA*~

Ziva yawned three days later as she sat crossed legged in a large tent surrounded by children. She had been given an option of which volunteer tasks she would like to do and she had chosen to work in one of the many childcare facilities on the camp. The other option had been within the camp medical facility and, knowing that she had an unborn baby to protect, she decided that working around people sick with goodness only knows what was probably not safe. The tent that she was sat in her been brightly decorated with drawings by children, balloons and paper streamers in an effort to try and brighten the spirits of the children who had lost everything.

"Are you sleepy?" A small girl had approached Ziva and spoke in uneasy Arabic, clearly not the dialect she was born with but a dialect she had become accustomed to in an environment surrounded by so many from different placed.

"Very, can you keep a secret?" Ziva whispered to the girl, who she estimated to be about six years old. The girl nodded fiercely, sitting down gently in Ziva's lap waiting for her to share the big secret. "I am sleepy because I am going to have a baby." Ziva whispered again, she knew it was safe to share this news with the child, whom she would probably never see again and whom she knew would not share it with anyone who shouldn't know the information.

"Really?" The girl beamed, a smile beaming on her face. Ziva smiled back equally as brightly and laughed gently as the tiny girl wrapped her arms around her neck. The girl was very excited about the news, probably the only good news she had heard in a long time, even though it would be a baby she would never meet or know.

Out of the corner of her eye Ziva spotted a face that she had come to know well. A woman had entered the tent holding hands with a boy of approximately nine years old, he had led the older woman into tent and seemed to be wanting to show her some artwork he had been working on. The older woman was wearing a drab olive green hijab over long black robes that concealed her feet, her face was uncovered and Ziva knew immediately that it was Shazana Ahmadi.

Ziva excused herself from the little girl and calmly walked to the outside of the tent. Checking that no one was watching her she subtly moved a piece of hair away from her face and spoke into her watch.

"I have eyes on Shazana Ahmadi, she is with a child. I am going to tail her and see whether she leads us back to their tent. It cannot be far from here, she does not appear to be walking well." Ziva whispered, alerting Team Gibbs and Agent Kahn who was at his post in the receiving centre.

"I am on my way, follow at a distance. Keep me informed, I will try and approach from the other direction." Agent Kahn's calm voice came through her ear wig.

Ziva watched as Shazana Ahmadi left the tent without the child, turning right and slowly walking down the long dusty road between the rows of tents. They walked painfully slowly for about half a mile, Ziva checking in regularly with their location, before Shazana turned and entered a small fabric hut at the end of a row. Ziva halted her pursuit as naturally as she could, bending down to pass a ball back to a group of children while keeping one eye on the tent. It wasn't long before Ziva spotted Agent Kahn approaching down the other end of the track, the voices in her earwig assuring her that Team Gibbs and Dunham had also arrived at the location and were in position to the East and West of the tent's location.

"Move now." Gibbs commanded over the communications link.

That was all it took; Ziva and Agent Kahn met outside the hut with weapons drawn and approached the tent cautiously. Without a door to kick in the entry into the tiny abode was swift, Kahn entered first followed closely by Ziva both announcing themselves in English and Arabic as US Federal Agents.

Inside they found Shazana and Farooq Ahmadi sat on the floor preparing for a meal, both were elderly and unable to move fast enough as the agents approached and so, defeated, raised their hands as instructed. Corporal Ahmadi on the other hand was agile and immediately tore towards Ziva and Agent Kahn, pushing them out of the way as he exited the tent. Ziva took the full force of Corporal Ahmadi's strength as he pushed her by the shoulders and she fell to the ground, stumbling backwards and landing on her back halfway out of the tent. Stunned for only a few seconds she leapt to her feet and began chasing after the Corporal, flanked by law enforcement officers from the camp.

"Freeze or I will shoot you." Ziva shouted as Corporal Ahmadi approached the boundary fence. She knew that he would be far more dangerous cornered but she also knew she was not alone. She could hear the Gibbs and Dunham behind her also shouting for the Corporal to surrender.

In one final fit of rage the Corporal roared and lunged towards Ziva, her reaction was instantaneous and before she could blink he was laying on the floor writhing in pain with a gunshot wound to the shoulder.

"Nice work David." Dunham commented in his thick southern accent as Ziva knelt on the Corporal's back and placed his hands firmly in handcuffs.

"Can we please get out of here now?" Ziva asked, desperate to get out of the dusty hell they had been in for days and into a comfortable bed in a hotel room with a hot shower.

"Lead the way Agent David." Gibbs spoke with a smile on his face, feeling proud of Ziva as she marched Corporal Ahmadi back down the dusty track towards the tent that still housed his parents.

The arrest had caused quite a commotion in the camp and crowds were beginning to gather as they loaded the Ahmadi family into an armoured UN transport vehicle bound for Amman. They would interrogate the suspects in a field office in Amman, kindly loaned to them by the FBI, before transporting them back to DC.

"You okay? I saw him push you down hard." Tony reached for Ziva as she climbed into the car ready to leave the camp. He had not seen her for three days and had only spoken to her via the sometimes patchy communications links.

"I am fine Tony, I will have a big bruise on my ass but I am fine." Ziva chuckled, she knew what Tony was really asking and they knew they could not discuss it in the car with everyone else. She hoped her words would be enough to ease his worries.

She and baby DiNozzo really were just fine.

A sense of calmed rushed over her as they drove out of the gates of the camp. She thought back to Tali's friend Hannah, whose murder had been one of the first she had investigated but whose killer she had never been able to catch. She was relieved that history would not be repeating itself this time, she was absolutely sure that the Corporal and his parents had murdered Mariam and she was absolutely sure she would get a confession.

Her skin tingled with anticipation, interrogation was one of her favourite parts of the job and something that she had become incredibly skilled at.

This was her moment and she was going to get the confession.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next will be the interrogation and finally their return home to DC! Thank you for reading, please go ahead and take a second to review. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello again! Thank you to the couple of people that reviewed the last chapter, it really means a lot that you took the time to do that. I'm really glad people are enjoying the story, I'd love to hear what more of you think!**

**I hope you enjoy this new chapter, it will be M rated!**

**~*TIVA*~**

The FBI Field Office in Amman was a dull looking office building attached to the back of the US Embassy, deep in the heart of the Jordanian capital. The inside, with its plain grey walls and blasting air conditioning, was just as dull as the outside. Team Gibbs, still accompanied by Agent Dunham, had placed the Corporal and his parents in holding while they agreed a plan of action. It had been decided that Mrs Ahmadi would be the first to be interrogated by Ziva, who was almost sure that the woman had played a vital role in the planning of Mariam's murder.

Mrs Ahmadi had been placed in the interrogation room by an FBI probie, she had only been sat there five minutes when Ziva opened the door and placed a folder down hard on the table before taking a seat.

"I am Special Agent David, do you know why you are here?" She asked, choosing to start slowly and build her way up to Mossad crazy, should that be necessary.

"I know not why you have dragged me from my home." Mrs Ahmadi replied, keeping up the charade of being an innocent refugee whose identity had been sorely mistaken.

Ziva laughed to herself as she opened up the file and pulled out three photographs, copies of each of the Ahmadi family's American identity documents.

"Would you like to change your answer?" Ziva asked firmly, pushing the photographs towards Mrs Ahmadi with a deep scowl on her face.

The older woman examined the photographs carefully before looking up at Ziva. "I would like a lawyer, I will not say any more." She said, her voice laced with equal amounts anger and frustration.

"You do not get a lawyer. You paid this woman to smuggle you and your family into a refugee camp." Ziva paused to show Mrs Ahmadi a photograph of Mina Hadid. "Unfortunately for you we discovered that Mina Hadid also smuggled four Hamas terrorists out of the West Bank and into the very same refugee camp we found you in. Those four terrorists were arrested last year but no one knew how they got there…until now. Not only will you be charged with the murder of your daughter in law but we fully intend to charge you with funding terrorism." Ziva remained as calm as she could as she presented the information to the accused. Finding out that Mina Hadid had been moving terrorists around the Middle East for years had been a lucky break, if the murder charge didn't stick they were absolutely sure that funding terrorism would.

Mrs Ahmadi looked up at Ziva with fierce eyes, the look sent chills down Ziva's spine.

""I am not a terrorist." Mrs Ahmadi spat as she continued to look angrily at Ziva.

"Perhaps not, but we traced thirty thousand dollars from your account to Mina Hadid. What do you think she will do with that money hmm? You say you are no terrorist but you had to have known where that money would end up. Tell me about Mariam." Ziva demanded, pacing around the room as she spoke. She was in the interrogation room alone but she knew that everyone was watching from behind the glass.

"She is my daughter in law, why are you asking me about her?" Shazana replied defiantly, the look in her eyes telling everyone that that she was hiding something.

"You know exactly why because you killed her. You pushed her down the stairs and then you stabbed her." Ziva slammed a photograph of Mariam's body down on the table in front of Shazana Ahmadi, watching as the older woman looked at it for a second before pushing it away.

"I do not know what you are talking about. I did you do this." She responded again.

Ziva scoffed slightly as she continued to pace the room, the anger rising within her every time their suspect refused to give up any useful information.

"What about the burn? You poured hot oil down her back yes? Had she made you angry? Disrespected you perhaps?" Ziva asked, leaning over Shazana Ahmadi's shoulder and getting into her personal space.

"I have never done such as thing. I will not answer any more of your questions." She responded again, folding her arms defiantly and leaning on the table.

"Very well." Ziva spoke as she left the room, slamming the door behind her. She let out an angry sigh as she walked the short distance between the door of interrogation and the door of observation. "I want to question Corporal Ahmadi next." She insisted, returning the papers about Shazana Ahmadi to Gibbs and taking the second file from his hands.

No one was going to question whether Ziva should be leading on the interrogation, they could all clearly see the fire in her eyes and the need to uncover the truth. It was for that reason that they found themselves stood once again in observation, this time looking on at a nervous Corporal Ahmadi and a furious Ziva. She walked around the room, pacing in complete silence, for ten full minutes before she spoke.

"I am going to tell you what I think happened on the day your wife was murdered. I think you had found out she was having an affair and you were angry, you felt disrespected and that was not something you were used to. You spoke to your mother and she was angry too yes? Furious that your wife had brought dishonor on the family by having sex with an American man while still married to you. So you came up with a plan, you both agreed that she needed to pay for her actions so you agreed to kill her, you helped your mother decide on the best way to do it and then your mother waiting for her to start climbing the stairs before stabbing her in the stomach and pushing her down. That is what happened correct?" Ziva asked, pushing the same photograph of Mariam that she had shown to Mrs Ahmadi in front of the Corporal.

Corporal Ahmadi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pushing the photograph away.

"You have it all wrong. My mother and I had nothing to do with this." He insisted firmly.

"You know it is funny, that is exactly what your mother said but while we were here looking for you, agents in DC were searching your neighbourhood for a murder weapon and they found one. Our forensic scientist found your DNA and your mother's fingerprints all over a knife that was covered in Mariam's blood. How about the truth now or would you prefer life without parole in Gitmo?" Ziva said as she pushed another picture in front of the Corporal, this time it was of a blood stained knife that had been located in dumpster close to the Ahmadi family home.

"Okay, okay look, it did not happen how you think. I knew Mariam had been sleeping with another man, I followed her and I saw them in the window of that man's bedroom. I was angry, how dare she have an affair, what kind of respectable woman does that? I had known for months but I had kept quiet, she was still sleeping with me and my mother was hoping for grandchildren. She came out of the bathroom that morning and told me she thought she was pregnant, I was furious but I couldn't let you know. I offered to go out and buy a test, on the way out I left her that note. I called my mother to tell her what I knew, she wanted to confront Mariam right away but I told her to wait. When I got back from the store I saw her at the bottom of the stairs dead and my mother standing next to her. I had to protect my mother, I disposed of the knife and we wrapped Mariam up in a rug so our neighbors would not be suspicious and put her body in the state park. I never thought you would find out, we thought if we disappeared here we would never be found." The Corporal hung his head and stared down at the table as he felt the wrath of Ziva, who had taken a seat opposite him at the table.

"What about the burn on Mariam's back?" Ziva asked, hoping that the Corporal's current truthfulness would continue.

"Mariam had an argument with my mother at my sister's home in Aqaba. My mother was asking intrusive questions trying to understand why Mariam had not got pregnant. Mariam shouted at her, told her to mind her own business, my mother slapped her face and Mariam pushed her back. My mother grabbed a pan of hot oil and threw it at Mariam as she turned to leave. I made Mariam swear she would never tell anyone what had really happened, my sister's friend is a doctor and she came to the house to see to the burns. We told everyone that Mariam had had an accident, that she had lent on the pan handle with her elbow and it has splashed her back." Corporal Ahmadi was crying now, not of sadness Ziva assumed but of anger and frustration that their web of lies had unravelled.

Ziva shook her head and took a deep breath before she spoke again.

"She was not pregnant and even if she had been you could have filed for divorce. Instead your mother murdered her and you threw her out like she was trash. You will be charged with murder, desecration of a corpse and terrorism. The federal prosecutor will decide whether additional charges are to be brought for the incident at your sister's home." Ziva stood up and gathered the papers before heading towards the door, feeling smug that she had finally got the bottom of what happened.

"Wait! Terrorism?" Corporal Ahmadi shouted anxiously.

"That is correct, the woman you and your mother paid to smuggle you into that camp? She was arrested an hour ago trying to leave the country, she has admitted to smuggling terrorists throughout the Middle East. By paying her mother you were funding terrorism. No lawyer, no deal and no parole." Ziva left it at that, there was nothing more that needed to be said.

McGee and Gibbs had confirmed that Mr Ahmadi had not known about the murder and had been very upset when he had heard what his wife and son had done. His case would be turned over to the federal prosecutor but Gibbs was sure that no charges would be filed. He had believed that they had had to flee the country when his son had decided he no longer wanted to be in the Navy and had gone absent without leave. He had described being closer to his daughter in law that his wife had been and had painted a picture of her as a loving, caring woman who he knew had never been happy with their son. He had been allowed to leave the FBI office a free man, mourning the loss of his daughter in law, wife and son.

"Good job David. Dunham and I will stay here and book the Corporal and his mother, rest of you go get some rest. We'll meet back here at 0800 for debrief." With that he disappeared around the corner following by Dunham, leaving the rest of Team Gibbs to their own devices.

~*TIVA*~

"All I want is a hot bath and my own bed." Ziva groaned as she entered their hotel room following closely by Tony. Sleeping on a thin mattress on the stone floor of the camp accommodation for all those days had done a number on her back and her muscles ached like crazy.

"Want me to run you a bath?" Tony asked, rubbing Ziva's feet as she lay down on the bed. Ziva screwed up her face, the hotel was nice but the tub was tiny and nothing like the deep copper tub back home that she loved.

Her back was aching more than it had in earlier weeks of her pregnancy, she had been increasingly worried about what that might mean. She knew that back pain was normal but the injuries she had sustained in Somalia weighed heavy on her shoulders and were the source of the worry she was feeling.

"I just want to go home. Before we left home I made an appointment for next week with an obstetrician at George Washington Hospital. Will you come?" Ziva asked hopefully, knowing that it was unlikely that Tony would say no.

A bright grin came across Tony's face and he led down next to Ziva on the bed, placing one hand under his head on the pillow and the other clasping with hers over her tiny bump.

"Like I would miss that. We need to tell everyone before then, boss man will be suspicious if we're both out for an appointment." His thumb was drawing absent minded patterns on Ziva's hand as he spoke.

"Are you okay Tony?" Ziva asked, looking up at Tony's face that he gone quickly from happy to pensive.

Tony sighed and pouted slightly, this case had taken a bigger toll on him that he had thought. Now that it was over he couldn't stop thinking about Mariam and the awful situation she had found herself in.

"I can't stop thinking about whether Mariam knew the risks, whether she still decided to have an affair knowing what her family might do to her." Ziva turned over on her side to look a Tony as he spoke, she could tell that the case had been troubling him ever since they had found Mariam's body.

She lifted her hand up to cup his stubbly cheek, pressing a light kiss to the end of his nose and then to his lips.

"She found happiness with a man who loved her for who she was, I am very sure she will have known the risks but maybe those risks were worth it for her. Mariam loved Commander Grayson but there was no love in her marriage Tony. I cannot condone what she was doing but I can understand it." Ziva spoke softly, resting her forehead against Tony's as she spoke and continuing to hold his face in her palm.

They worked many cases of husbands and wives having affairs and trying to hide it, they had never bothered Tony before. Even he himself was unsure why this particular case of infidelity had him so torn up inside.

"I'd be devastated if you slept with someone else Ziva but I swear I'd never kill you. I'd be mad but we could work through that." Tony whispered, surprising himself as the words came out of his mother before he had even heard them in his brain.

Ziva's hand stopped stroking his cheek and she leant back so that she could look him deeply in the eyes.

"Where is this coming from Tony?" Ziva asked cautiously, concerned about where this conversation was about to lead. She knew that trust had been an issue early on in their relationship, before it had even officially begun. They had been making big steps towards being together when her father was killed but things had become complicated when, in a moment of drunken weakness, she had slept with Adam in Israel. They had spent many hours discussing this and rebuilding their trust before they had made their relationship official and Ziva had thought they were long past this.

"I really have no idea where that came from." Tony answered, as surprised as Ziva was at his words.

"You do not heard to worry about that Tony. You are my family, I love you and I am not going anywhere, ever." Ziva whispered back, leaning up and pressing a long loving kiss to Tony's lips.

Tony smiled into the kiss, enjoying the feeling of her body against his after so many days apart. The kiss continued to heat up as Tony's hands began to move inside Ziva's shirt.

"I've missed you this week." Tony spoke against her lips, enjoying her smiling against him. Ziva sat up on her knees and pulled her shirt over her head, revealing the lacy white bra that accentuated her tanned olive skin, more sun kissed that it usually would be thanks to their time in the desert.

Tony's shirt quickly fell with hers to the floor, quickly joined by the rest of their clothes. Neither bothered to get under the covers, the room was warm as the air conditioning had not been on until they had entered the room some ten minutes earlier. Tony rolled them over so that Ziva was on her back, his chest pressing against hers as he continued to press loving kisses on her lips. His hands moved up from Ziva's thighs over her bump and to cup her breasts, he was definitely enjoying the fact that she had gone up a whole cup size since finding out she was pregnant. Ziva moaned as his thumbs brushed over her nipples, they had been so much more sensitive than usual and the feel of his thumbs against them were driving her crazy. Tony's kisses moved from her lips to her neck and down her chest to her breasts, he began to kiss his way down her stomach to her belly button before Ziva grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back up to her.

"Stop wasting time." She whispered seductively, knowing that Tony would agree that foreplay was an unnecessary delay to the inevitable when both were more than ready for the main event.

Tony kissed her one final time and looked deeply in her eyes, waiting for the smile that he knew would cross her lips as she closed her eyes. This was their routine, their unspoken signal that everything was okay. It had been something Tony had done the first time they had slept together, knowing how difficult sex had been for her since Somalia and knowing the importance of that moment. Ziva had known what the pause had meant, that he was waiting for her to say it was okay to proceed and though they had never verbalised it, it was something that had happened every time they had slept together since.

As Ziva's eyes closed and the peaceful smile crossed her face Tony leant forwards and sank deeply inside her, both letting out a sigh of relief. He continued his slow pace, moving in long loving strokes as his hands clasped Ziva's above her head. Ziva moaned quietly between breaths, enjoying the slow and steady pace and the feeling of all her sore muscles relaxing. Sex with Tony had always been amazing but the best sex always happened when they had been separated, whether it be for days or for weeks. Reunion sex, as they had always called it, was definitely their favourite.

The slow pace continued, neither feeling a need to speed things up or change their position with Tony on top and their hands joined. Ziva could feel her skin beginning to tingle and her toes beginning to curl, she whispered Tony's name against his skin as she brought her knees up further allowing Tony to get even deeper. Tony's head fell to Ziva's shoulder as he felt her tightening around him, just seconds away from the edge himself. Ziva's muscles all tightened and her hands squeezed Tony's tightly as the wave of pleasure overtook her body, enjoying the feeling of Tony also reaching the top and the warmth inside her.

"I think that was the best sex we have had in a long time." Tony whispered, trying to think of any recent occasions when it had been better but coming up with nothing.

Tony rolled off her gently, keeping his arms around her so that she rolled on top of him. He leant up and kissed her again, getting lost once again in the moment.

"If you are looking for round two you are out of luck, I am really tired." Ziva sat up and moved off Tony's thighs and into her side of the bed, enjoying the feeling of the cool air against her warm skin.

"How about a shower? It's definitely big enough for two." Tony commented, stepping up off the bed and offering her his hand. Ziva thought about it for a second before smiling and taking his hand, following him into the bathroom.

After the water had warmed, both stepped under the spray of the ample sized double shower. Ziva left the water spray down on her face and over her skin as it eased her tired muscles. She felt Tony's hands work their way into her long hair, she smiled as he continued to massage shampoo into her scalp sending waves of relaxation through her body. He stood close behind her as she continued to wash her hair, his hands roaming her body and coming to rest gently against her stomach.

Once they were both showered and clean Tony helped Ziva out of the shower and into a warm fluffy towel, wrapped her in it and pushing her out of the bathroom.

"You've had a really tense couple of weeks, I packed your favorite massage oil." Tony winked as he pulled the bottle out of his suitcase and guided Ziva to lay face down on the bed.

Ziva loved a massage, it had been something she had done regularly before Somalia but had not been as keen when she had returned, on account of the numerous scars across her back that had remained raised and red for months after her return. Tony sat gently on her thighs as he began to work the knots out of Ziva's back, relishing in the sound of her relaxed moans.

"You are not going to be able to do this for much longer. I will no longer be able to lay on my stomach on a few weeks." Ziva noted, trying to relax as much as she could to make the most of the moment. The delicious smell of the vanilla and coconut massage oil was filling her nostrils and adding to her complete relaxation.

Tony turned himself around so that he could work on her legs and feet, taking special care not to put too much pressure against her foot that had been damaged in Somalia. Once he was finished he wiped the excess oil off his hands on a towel and lay back down next to Ziva. He stared at her lovingly for a moment, simply enjoying the look of relaxation that was spread across her face.

"What time is the appointment next week?" He asked, pressing his hand to her bump once again.

"Monday at 0800, I need to speak with the doctor about…some things I am concerned about." Ziva spoke cautiously, wanting to share her worries with Tony but not wanting to ruin their moment of relaxed bliss.

Tony frowned, she had not mentioned anything that had been worrying her outside of the difficulties she had been having accepting that the pregnancy was real. His moment of peace was suddenly interrupted by a deafening sense of anxiety.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked as he sat up with his elbow on the pillow and his head leaning on his hand.

"Nothing I do not think but…I have bad back pain this week and I am fearful of giving birth. In Somalia there was…an incident...Saleem and his men had taken a man captive, he was eastern European, Belarusian I believe. He was a very bad man, an arms dealer, but I do not think Saleem knew that. They had captured his boat as he sailed around the Horn of Africa and brought him to the camp. We were briefly kept in the same cell but he did not see himself as a captive, on the third night he was there the men had forgotten to shackle him and he came over to me rambling in Russian about dying and wanting to feel good one last time and then he raped me. Saleem heard it happening and he became very angry, he burst into the room and pulled up both out, I was pushed down a flight of stone stairs, fractured a vertebrae and cracked my pelvis. I did not know this at the time but Ducky said they could see the healing fractures on the x-rays they took in the hospital. The Belarusian fared worse, they executed him there and then. I am concerned about these fractures and whether they will make things difficult, they do not affect me normally but with everything being…different, I do not want it causing problems for the baby." Ziva's tone was sombre as she spoke, regretting bringing up the topic and ruining their blissful moment of peacefulness.

Tony had moved closer to her as she spoke, wrapping his arms around her again and pressing his body against hers for comfort. He hated hearing what she had been through in that hell hole but the overwhelming sense of love he felt whenever she opened up to him, balanced out the pain of hearing the words.

"I'm sure the doctor will be able to put your mind at rest." He whispered against her skin, not wanting to say anything about the horrors she had revealed for fear of saying the wrong thing. Ziva knew this technique and appreciated it, she didn't want to ever feel like anyone felt sorry for her.

"Let's get some sleep." She whispered, resting her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes and allowing herself to fall into a restful sleep.

~*TIVA*~

At 1700 the following evening Team Gibbs, Agent Kahn and Agent Dunham had gathered in an upmarket restaurant in Amman, close to the airport, while the waited for their commercial flight home, via Istanbul. Agent Dunham would be joining them on the journey home, having filed for some comp time to spend some time with his family in Texas.

"While we are all here together, minus Ducky and Abby of course, there is something that I would like to tell you all….Tony and I are having a baby." Ziva announced, her voice matter of fact but laced with a small amount of excitement as she shared the news. They had discussed sharing the news this evening and decided it best to share with Gibbs and McGee away from Abby, who no doubt would make a big scene of how exciting she found the news.

Gibbs smiled knowingly at the couple, offering his hand for Tony to shake before patting Ziva on the shoulder.

"Congratulations, even though you broke rule twelve." He said as he winked, his smile growing at the thought of having another baby in their family.

"Wow congratulations both of you." McGee added, following closely by Agent Dunham as he gave his congratulations.

Agent Kahn smiled a knowing smile at Tony and Ziva, this was not news to him but he was really glad that he no longer had to keep it a secret. Tony smile back, his facial expression laced with thanks to the younger agent for taking such exemplary care of Ziva and their baby throughout the mission.

The flight was long and even though the agency had forked out for first class seats, and only became economy had been fully booked, neither Tony nor Ziva had been able to settle for any sleep. They landed in Washington a long twenty hours after they had taken off from Amman, on account of a long layover in Istanbul.

Both Tony and Ziva were exhausted as they pushed open the heavy front door of their beautiful Georgetown home. The first thing to greet them with the delicious smell of freshly baked bread, Ziva smiled as memories of her childhood filled her mind. A quick check of her phone confirmed her suspicions, it was Friday and Shoshana had been baking challah for Shabbat.

"Bubbe, we're home." Tony called into the house as he hauled in the last of their small amount of luggage from the steps up from the street to their front door.

Shoshana rushed into the large hallway from the kitchen and smiled as she saw them.

"Shalom, Shalom. My Ziva, how your Bubeleh has grown since I saw you last." Shoshana smiled as she approached Ziva, placing both hands on her bump which seemed to be growing more each day. No longer needing to hide it from those she had travelled with, Ziva had dressed in yoga pants and a comfortable tank top for the flight, both of which proudly showed off the evidence of the rapidly growing baby.

Ziva smiled in response but said nothing, knowing that nothing really needed to be said and feeling too exhausted to make small talk. She excused herself as quickly as she could to shower and catch a short nap before the sun set and Shabbat celebrations began.

"Were you successful?" Shoshana asked Tony, not wanting to pry into the details of the mission but keen to know that their travels had not been wasted.

"Very. We made two arrests and both suspects will be returned here to be charged." Tony confirmed with a weary smile, gratefully accepting the plate of snacks that Shoshana had put under Tony's nose.

"And Ziva, how is she?" She asked nervously. She had worried for Ziva the whole time they had been away, given that she had only just learnt of her family's history with Jordan and the difficulties that Ziva had been having through her early pregnancy.

"Much better than before I think. We have a doctor's appointment on Monday and I think she's actually excited to see the baby for the first time." Tony smiled as he spoke, feeling a genuinely wonderful sense of happiness and relief.

A knock on the door broke their quiet conversation.

"I'll get it." Ziva called as she came down the stairs, freshly showered with wet ringlets hanging down her back and in another comfortable pair of yoga pants with one of Tony's Ohio State T-shirts over the top.

"Abby, what are you doing here?" Ziva asked as she opened the door to an anxious looking Abby. It was easy to tell when Abby was anxious, the nervous energy just seeped out of her and made it impossible for her to hide her emotions.

"I've just been to Timmy's and he told me about how awful this mission was and how you had to sleep on a floor in a refugee camp for a week and then you got pushed over and I was worried about you and I needed to see you were okay, even though Tim had told you were fine but I just needed to see you for myself." Abby's sentence came out all in one big breath, not even coming up for air for a second. Ziva smiled at her friend, she had been awfully overprotective since her return from Somalia all those years ago.

Ziva opened her arms for Abby, offering her the hug that she knew the hyper-anxious goth desperately wanted. Less than a second later Abby had wrapped her arms tightly around Ziva.

"Oh my god…oh my god…oh my god, Ziva! Oh my god!" Abby said almost immediately after she had pulled Ziva tightly into her arms. Ziva winced, she had momentarily forgotten about her bump and the fact that she was yet to share the news with Abby. Abby tore herself away from Ziva and pulled the t-shirt up, with no regard for personal space or the fact that they were still stood in the open doorway of the David-DiNozzo home.

"Is this….are you…..oh my god." Rarely was Abby complete lost for words but this seemed to be one of those moments, she was so completely shocked that she could not get her brain to produce coherent thoughts.

"Yes Abby, Tony and I are having a baby." Ziva spoke quietly, hoping that her calmness would rub off on the over excited forensic scientist stood before her. It was at that moment that Tony had joined them in the hallway, a huge smile on his face as he had heard Ziva revealing their news to Abby.

"This is so exciting, I can't believe it. A Team Gibbs baby! Like a real Team Gibbs baby, not that Palmer's baby isn't a real baby but Palmer isn't really fully on Team Gibbs…not that he isn't part of the team because he totally is but it's just not the same…oh my god." Ziva laughed at Abby's continued babbling, clearly her anxiety had turned to excitement that she was unable to control.

Abby stepped over the threshold of the house, closing the door behind her before wrapped Tony and Ziva into a tight Abby hug.

"This is the best news ever you guys, I'm so happy for you." She said genuinely, not allowing either to pull away until she was ready to release them from her happy excited hug.

Shoshana stood in the kitchen doorway looking at the scene unfolding in the hall. A large smile spread across her face, she had always wanted this moment for Ziva but she had come to worry that maybe it would never come. Now that it was happening, now that Ziva was truly genuinely happy, the fears for Ziva's future were replaced only with hope.

**Next up will be visiting the doctor and a new case to tackle! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know in PM or in review if there is anything you would really like to see included in the story! Thank you for reading!**


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